The recent lockdown has forced consumers to have a much more direct relationship with media and ecommerce, bringing back into focus the undeniable revenue generating potential of affiliate programs for news publishers. While advertising revenues plummeted in 2020, ecommerce revenues through affiliate programs grew exponentially, and for publishers who anticipated the shift, the rewards have been astronomical, and some have experienced an annual growth of up to 675%.

In this session we will meet Leilani Han, Director of Business Development and Partnerships at Wirecutter, an industry reference in affiliation marketing, to discuss how affiliate models present an opportunity for publishers and how Wirecutter has grown over the past year.

About Wirecutter:
In 2016, instead of building its affiliate business from scratch, The New York Times decided to buy Wirecutter for $30 million, a product review website with a business model based on affiliate commissions. At the time Wirecutter generated $150 million in ecommerce revenue. The deal was an investment in changing The New York Times’ culture.