Slashdot Mirror
New York Times Buys The Wirecutter For $30 Million (recode.net)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Recode: The New York Times is buying The Wirecutter, a five-year-old online consumer guide. The Times will pay more than $30 million, including retention bonuses and other payouts, for the startup, according to people familiar with the transaction. Brian Lam, a former editor at Gawker Media's Gizmodo, founded The Wirecutter in 2011, and has self-funded the company's growth. The Wirecutter provides recommendations for electronics and other gadgets that are both obsessively researched and simply presented. The Wirecutter also owns The Sweethome, which takes the same approach for home appliances and other gear. "We're very excited about this acquisition on two fronts," said Mark Thompson, CEO of The New York Times Company, in the acquisition release. "It's an impressively run business with a very attractive revenue model and its success is built on the foundation of great, rigorously reported service journalism." The Wirecutter tweeted earlier today: "Hey, we're still us. But we're a part of The New York Times now."
According to Trump they're on life-support.
> Hey, we're still us. But we're a part of The New York Times now.
Hey, we're a part of The New York Times now. But we're still us. Really we are. Until our editorial staff is fired or quits in disgust in +/- a quarter, or until our "rigorous science" reporting devolves into "schilling for the highest bidder" in +/- 2 quarters or until, fuck it, we just start sucking cocks on camera for $11 a scene. Until then, we're still us.
I personally liked Wirecutter's review style. Notably, you can find what they recommend with a link to buy it if you're in a hurry. They always have a section where the review goes over their credentials. They list all the comparable products they tried. They review things that other sites don't review, the general theme of the site is "consumer goods that a millennial has got to have".
I'm sure I'm going to get plenty of posts slamming them and claiming bias or how they often recommend something that is more expensive than the cheapest possible item you can buy that does the same thing. They absolutely do consider cost, unlike sites like wired, and usually they recommend the product that they feel offers the best bang/buck.
Anyways, they were good. Will The Times screw them up? Maybe. Maybe all the review staff will have to move into cubicles in some mammoth office building owned by NYT. Maybe they'll get treated a lot worse and they'll be forced to compromise their ethics to just collect as much cash as possible to boost a CEO's quarterly profits. Then again, maybe not. The Times bought five thirty eight, and I can't detect any significant downgrade in the site.
The New York Times is as bad as the government! Buying a $30 million wire cutter is just as bad as buying a $30 million hammer
Nice long and narrow content, with plenty of blank space around the edges where presumably the malware-ridden advertisements go. Thank goodness for Adblockers. $30 million for a garbage site. Congratulations.
Could have sworn this said "... bought -A- wire cutter for $30 million"
I was thinking to myself.. who did they buy it from.... the US Army?
"Hey, we're still us. But we're a part of The New York Times now." But for how long, I wonder. I really do appreciate both of their sites. They have helped me make better informed decisions on products. If the Times does end up ruining The Wirecutter, I hope that another will take its place. Sigh
Isn't he the gizmodouche asshole who belongs behind bars for stealing an iPhone prototype?
He's lucky Steve didn't think he was worth destroying.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
But now having looked I know the best standing desk to buy. I wonder if they can recommend a cold coffee brewer? Ahh... that is what Amazon is for.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
I'm not familiar with the website in question and know nothing about it besides the description given to it in the Slashdot summary. But assuming it is even marginally accurate, I stand in saddened awe that a site which actually produces moderately interesting content ("recommendations for electronics and other gadgets that are both obsessively researched and simply presented") is purchased for a mere $30 million while something like Facebook or Twitter - which are blank slates filled with user-created nonsense - go for billions of dollars. We as a culture really need to look into our priorities...
Equipment like this one http://www.directindustry.com/... tend to be quite expensive. Have the times figgered out what they will do with the wirecutter becomes dull?
Most Respectfully Yours Mark Allyn Bellingham, Washington
Given how the NYT says nothing when David Pogue freely accepts perks and free stuff from the companies he reviews, there is no pretense whatsoever of impartiality or objectivity. Pogue doesn't actually even work FOR the Times; he's a 1099 contractor and free to do as he pleases. And he does. And as a result, I can't trust that anything he says isn't something he is being paid to say by a supplier or vendor.
So along comes Wirecutter, which seems to take the opposite approach where they seem to care about impartiality and fairness. I say 'seem' because I don't know what their official policy is on reviews but I don't get the same party junket vibe that Pogue oozes.
And my own experience with Wirecutter reviews is 50/50: I went with their suggestion for a cable modem and it's turned out to be a good choice. But I also tried their suggestion for a wireless router, the TP-Link C7, and found it was among the worst routers I have ever had the misfortune to run across. Really have no idea how that thing has gotten any good reviews. It ended up going back to the store, and I'm not someone who ever returns things. Given the Wirecutter's reputation, I expected something a lot better. And having been burned on that one, I don't feel like I can actually trust them all that much.
For great false consensus!
someone should create a snapshot of these two sites before they're ruined in time
The Times bought five thirty eight, and I can't detect any significant downgrade in the site.
Other than that the eleventh page view each month cost $35 for a digital subscription to NYTimes.com. Only when Disney bought it did the paywall drop. And I find Disney charging less for something to be unusual.
I love the Wirecutter and the Sweethome. I tend to spend an unnecessary amount of time researching certain products, so having these "The Best" sites really cuts down on my research time. Even if I don't go with their pick, the articles themselves are very informative for the subject at hand, telling you what to look for, what features are important/not important, etc., which helps in ensuring my money is spent more wisely. The wife and I have quite a few of their picks around the house and we're pretty happy with the results.
really? I'll never trust any review from that website just because of their SSD article. The samsung evo is a TLC SSD that is infamous for it's low reliability and firmware problems, and it's the last SSD I'd ever recommend. The samsung 830,840,850 PRO however deserves first place. The authors should be fired. Also, most people don't need 512GB or more. I've installed hundreds of SSDs for businesses as well as residential and 95% of them use less than 40GB, so I go with 128GB drives. http://thewirecutter.com/revie...
and the Enquirer has become the NYTimes. Shameful reporting NYTimes.
Cancel my digital subscription, oh gladly I never fell for that 3 yrs ago.
Who's getting paid for the biased coverage? Lots of opportunity for a lot more HONEST media channels...