The NYT is the Worst-Possible Home for Wordle (Premium)

For the past few months or so, the indie mobile web game Wordle has taken the world by storm. And so, The New York Times is acquiring this game for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures.” This is great for the game’s maker, a newly-minted multi-millionaire. But it’s a nightmare scenario for the game’s millions of fans. Because The New York Times will absolutely ruin this game.

I’ve wanted to write about how terrible The New York Times is for a long time. But in lieu of a pointless rant, I’ll just lay out the facts.

The New York Times describes its business model as having two parts: A paid subscription for digital content and a traditional newspaper business model that is centered on advertising.

This is a lie.

Its real business model is a combination of paid subscriptions and advertising, and that’s true whether you pay for its content digitally or for the traditional, paper-based newspaper. That is, unlike Thurrott.com (for the most part), when you pay them, you still see ads. Lots of ads. Animated ads. Annoying ads. This is true on their web properties, and it’s true in their mobile apps, where it’s impossible to block those ads. (At least easily.) Paying the NYT for content is just the first step in your relationship. You’ll never be done paying them.

And that’s especially true if you want its most valuable content, which includes recipes, games (especially its Crossword, and The Wirecutter recommendation service, the latter of which I’m a fan of. You can’t just subscribe to the paper and get these additional services. No. You have to pay extra for them, either separately or as a higher-end and higher-cost subscription. And when you do, guess what? You still get ads.

Today, several million people play Wordle every day, and it’s free. According to the NYT, Wordle will “initially remain free to new and existing players.” And that’s all they say about it. But given history, and the publication’s real business model, Wordle obviously will not remain free. So let’s take a look at how much you could soon be paying for this addictive little treasure. (More likely, you’ll just move on to the next big thing, but whatever.)

The NYT Crossword, which provides unlimited play with access to all previous puzzles, is $5 per month or $40 per year, The firm charges the same price for its NYT Cooking (recipes) subscription, and it charges it yet again for The Wirecutter. Or you can get digital access to the paper’s content (with ads), NYT Games, NYT Cooking, and The Wirecutter for $325 per year. (It’s on sale as I write for this for $150 per year.)

That’s a far cry from free. But it’s also a far cry from the proper business model, which is a choice of free with ads or paid with no ads. Which is not a business model that The NYT will ever consider.

Put another way, in the sense that Microsoft has been a good steward for Minecraft, GitHub, and LinkedIn, and will be for Ac...

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