Wirecutter is owned by The New York Times (the United States, NYSE: NYT), which acquired the brand on 24 October 2016 for $25 million.[1][2] Wirecutter was founded in 2011 in the United States and was independent until 2016.
Wirecutter reviews consumer products and names a single pick per category rather than ranking many, funding itself through affiliate commissions. The New York Times acquired it in 2016 for about $30 million. Its reviews are researched over weeks and updated as products change, and the model of a single recommendation has been copied widely across consumer journalism.
What The New York Times's annual report says about Wirecutter
Sentences about Wirecutter from The New York Times's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
Affiliate, licensing and other revenues primarily consist of revenues from licensing, Wirecutter affiliate referrals, commercial printing, the leasing of floors in our Company Headquarters, our live events business and retail commerce.
How often The New York Times names Wirecutter in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named less often than it was three years earlier.
The New York Times is a publicly listed company headquartered in New York, New York, United States, founded in 1851. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: NYT.
The New York Times has published since 1851 and is one of the few newspapers to have made the transition to digital subscriptions successfully, with more than ten million of them. It is still controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through a dual share structure.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States.
478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Wirecutter is not one of them.
The New York Times Company bought the product review sites The Wirecutter and The Sweethome for $25.0 million, its first move into affiliate commerce as a revenue line. The two sites were later folded into a single Wirecutter brand, which the company began selling as a standalone subscription in 2021. The $25.0 million covered both sites; only Wirecutter survives as a brand.
The parent company of Wirecutter is The New York Times, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Wirecutter American?
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Yes. Wirecutter originated in the United States in 2011 and its owner, The New York Times, is also headquartered in the United States.
When did The New York Times buy Wirecutter?
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The New York Times completed its acquisition of Wirecutter on 24 October 2016. The deal was valued at $25 million (enterprise value).
Who owned Wirecutter before The New York Times?
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Wirecutter was an independent company from its founding in 2011 until The New York Times acquired it in 2016.
Is Wirecutter still owned by The New York Times?
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Yes. As of 11 October 2026, Wirecutter is still owned by The New York Times. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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