Number
NYT crossword alone: ~800K subscribers, ~$67M/year
Sam estimates the New York Times crossword had ~600K subscribers in 2020 (rounding to 800K), each paying about $7/month for the crossword only, which works out to roughly $60-67M a year from the puzzle division alone.
$67M
Annual crossword subscription revenue (estimate) · USD/year
“So $7 times 800,000, we're looking at $5.7 $6 million a month, $60 million a year, or, uh, $67 million a year in subscription revenue only from crossword puzzles. Right. That's it. That's just the crossword puzzle division.”
Billy
The under-20 kid behind the Worldometer COVID counter
A young kid (maybe not even 20) copied the same simple chart format for COVID cases and it blew up to hundreds of millions of visits; per the NYT he refused to sell or run ads, despite an estimated $4-5M/year in potential display-ad revenue.
“So it was a kid. He might have been not even 20. He was a young kid and he did the same exact chart, but for COVID cases and it blew up. And I think the New York Times did an article about how he refused to sell it and he refused to put advertising on it. And they've estimated that he could be making $4 or $5 million a year off just display ads.”
Number
Wirecutter sold for $30M when it should've been $200M
Sam argues review sites like Wirecutter are bootstrappable; Wirecutter was bootstrapped but sold to the NYT for $30 million far too early, when he thinks it was worth $200 million.
$30M
Wirecutter acquisition price · USD
“these are bootstrappable companies. They, they, So maybe you don't even need them. Wirecutter was bootstrapped. They sold way too early. They sold for $30 million. They should have sold for $200 million.”