The New York Times is buying the Wirecutter for more than $30M

It's definitely concerning, but doesn't an affiliate link business model also have potential conflicts of interest? There's a direct financial incentive to recommend products from sellers with more generous referral programs, as well as a bias toward more expensive products (assuming the kickback is percentage based).

Hopefully the NYT is smart enough to realize that all the value is in the reputation and maintain an open and transparent hands-off editorial policy. Keeping the articles as detailed and comprehensive as they are is also important, but still leaves room for advertiser pressure through omission of viable alternatives while retaining the appearance of objectivity.

Serious Eats has to structure its reviews differently to avoid offending advertisers. It insists that its product recommendations are independent of outside influence, but it avoids discussing its non-recommendations, which makes some articles much less valuable to the reader. That's probably the least bad way for advertising to influence reviews, but it's unfortunate even so.

As long as they don't change their format I'm ok with this. They seem to go to a great deal of trouble to discuss all the possible options, and criteria they used to write their recommendations. That allows me to judge for myself to a degree which I really like. Several times I have not bought their recommendation and have gone with something else because I felt like I was more informed about what I was looking for from reading their article, which is still good in my book.

I agree, the Wirecutter/Sweethome is my most trusted source of product reviews.

>can opener, never again oxo

Let me guess. The one that makes a non-sharp cut that requires the strength of a bodybuilder and doesn't work half the time?

But, yes, they seem to do a good job overall. Honestly, for a lot of things these days, all you want is a succinct recommendation for something decent while understanding the basis of the recommendation.

For me it's simply the "I don't really want to think about this, but don't want to buy something bad" factor. I don't really care enough about TV to spend hours researching it, but I can probably rely on The Wirecutter to make sure I don't buy a POS. I might spend much more time researching a phone, on the other hand, and don't look at it too much.

There's a lot of value in that offering, because there's a huge gap between "enthusiasts reviews" (Anandtech, for example) and "consumer" (Consumer Reports). One is done by enthusiasts for enthusiasts and the other is done by consumers for consumers. The Wirecutter seems to provide "by enthusiasts for consumers".

I also love the organization and writing style. I read reviews for things I'm not even remotely in the market for (what is an immersion blender?) simply for the enjoyment. Another great review site with a similar style is outdoorgearlab.com.

Thanks for the find. I love the border made out of dollar signs.

This needs to be the top comment.

OMG, I can't believe it. The current design is extremely modern/cool but the old one is so geeky, I loved that too and I also discovered an interesting website I didn't know... Although as a European, I'm probably cut off from many of the most interesting products (e.g. standing desks).

Not sure this is a great example, as a great deal of the success here was fueled by people following blam after he left Gizmodo.

I doubt this would be the case if thewirecutter tried to capture a NEW audience with only marketing, a mission statement, and a scrappy MVP.

one quick way that comes to mind would be to check a web archive for past versions of the page in question

Archive.org has the home page since 2012 http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://theWirecutter.com

there is a changelog towards the top where you can expand to see modifications and upcoming proposals or inquisitions

> What a shame.

Is this just a default assumption that the NYT is going to ruin it? I'm actually not totally sure about comparable situations, but Engadget seems to have done ok after being acquired.

How many employees did they have?

Plus I'm guessing they were banking almost all of the revenue from those 5 years as well

Definitely agree with this. Here's hoping that with the Time's extra resources they will be able to keep more up to date.

Just had this problem last week with the sweet home. I ended up being from a sporting goods store instead of Amazon, but I pretty much knew there was going to be some rust from the long storage time of the discontinued product. It turned out to be only a minor issue.

It's a little frustrating how really I can look at a website or product line and reliably make a judgment like "they made a good product in gen 1/2, but now they're in the gen 3/4 cash out phase where they cut costs and make huge margins on the product before their reputation catches up with the new cost-cutting." It shows how often I see it.

My wife and I are missing some significant things in our apartment, but I intend to keep dragging my feet so I can acquire high-quality things as I get the time to research and the money to buy them. Disposable crap isn't worth my time.

Then again, maybe all the mid-30-something's here are laughing at me right now because I'm just doing what everyone does once they mature and become experienced.