Q&A with NYT's SVP of ad innovation Allison Murphy about the paper's plans to stop using third-party cookies, its contextual ad targeting strategy, and more
When The New York Times pivoted to prioritizing its subscriptions a few years ago, eventually growing to 6.5 million paid subscribers …
Context & Ripple Effects
This Q&A with SVP Allison Murphy details how The New York Times will execute the plan it announced in May, when it said it would stop using third-party data to target ads in 2021 and start from 45 proprietary audience segments. It is the operational follow-through on a strategy the paper has been assembling all year: pulling stories from Apple News to keep direct reader relationships, and installing Meredith Levien as CEO with a mandate to make NYT a digital product and technology company.
The subscriber base is what makes the pivot credible. Having grown to 6.5 million paid readers since its Beta Group-era digital push, NYT can sell advertisers its own audience data instead of renting cookie-based profiles — a position most publishers cannot replicate.
First-order effects
- Advertisers buying NYT inventory must move off third-party cookies onto contextual targeting and the paper's proprietary audience segments, changing how campaigns against premium news are planned and priced.
Second-order effects
- Rival publishers and ad-tech intermediaries face pressure to prove their own first-party alternatives as a top-tier publisher removes cookie-dependent inventory; NYT had already primed the argument by showing readers ads built on 16 inferred profile attributes to expose what targeting claims to know about them.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, premium advertising consolidates around publishers with direct subscriber relationships and proprietary data platforms, while cookie-reliant middlemen lose access to the inventory brands most want — a structural split between first-party data owners and everyone else.
The trend: Large-subscription publishers are converting direct reader relationships into ad businesses that bypass third-party tracking infrastructure entirely.