“It’s not, ‘This is what we believe and this is what we’re going to write about and this is how we’re going to help people.’”

“A lot of these new companies, the mission is business: ‘We want to get as many eyeballs as possible,’” Lam had told Recode’s Peter Kafka in a podcast episode this past June. According to Lam, The Wirecutter drove $150 million in e-commerce transactions in 2015. The model was working: The site only posts a few dozen articles a month, according to a Bloomberg profile earlier this year, and is profitable. Its editorial mandate is meticulous reviewing, offering readers a small selection of only what its staffers deem to be the best stuff, and the site generates e-commerce revenue through affiliate links, getting a cut of the purchase price. The Wirecutter was founded in 2011 by Brian Lam, an editor of the then–Gawker Media site Gizmodo, and has never taken venture funding.

July 16, 2015The New York Times will pay more than $30 million to buy the much-loved gadget and technology review site The Wirecutter, Recode reported on Monday (The Times is also getting The Wirecutter’s sibling site focused more on home appliances and goods, The Sweethome).

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