• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, 5 hours ago

The New York Times’ advertising arm is finding it can write its own future through technology.

As publishers grapple with the "zero-click phenomenon" -- described as a search behavior where users find answers to queries directly in search -- New York Times Advertising (NYTA) has created technology to carve out its own niche and become self-sufficient to support advertisers.

“Embracing technology like generative AI can help us understand our content and audience better, because we use large language models to better understand the audiences,” Valerio Poce, executive director of ad product marketing, told MediaPost.

BrandMatch, NYTA’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) targeting technology, has been in the market since September 2024. It was the company's first major investment in generative AI technology.

Now, more than a year later, BrandMatch has supported 150 client campaigns across verticals from luxury and beauty to education and consulting. 

"We've learned the future is in technology," Poce said.

A new feature recently launched now supports editorial sponsorships, as a smart audience extension and to match sold-out sponsorships for personalized targeting, The New York Times also added BrandMatch targeting for programmatic campaigns -- specifically private marketplace (PMP) deals, combining programmatic with custom targeting.

Driving its own destiny steeped in technology works for NYTA. Total advertising revenue at the New York Times rose by 11.8% to $132.3 million in the third quarter, ending September 30, 2025. Digital advertising revenue saw a strong surge of 20.3% to $98.1 million, while print advertising continued its decline, falling 7.1%.

NYTA helps advertisers combat the "zero-click phenomenon" by developing proprietary, first-party data and AI-powered contextual-targeting solutions that allow brands to reach engaged audiences without cookies.

Its “Perspective Targeting," a solution based on 42 emotions and 10 motivations, allows advertisers to align their messages with readers' emotional states, a strategy that has yielded high click-through rates in beta tests, which I view as one of the most interesting features.

Advertisers have found results in average click-through rates (CTRs) and higher video completion rates (VCR), and many have seen increases of more than 30% overall. Crown Publishing and Belmond are among the advertisers that have seen success rates rise.

Crown Publishing, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, began running ads using NYT's ad technology to reach curious readers looking for information about "that book everyone's talking about." Given the wide swath of topics, authors and genres being advertised, Crown Publishing needed a strategy that recognized the uniqueness of each of its bestselling books.

The publisher provided NYTA with “briefs” outlining the plot of each book, with a bio on the author and key themes. Using generative AI, BrandMatch mapped the themes from the brief and found readers engaging with those articles across the NYT.

Throughout the annual campaign, BrandMatch drove more than a 1% CTR for campaigns promoting five books: The Demon of Unrest, Why Nations Fail, Boustany, The Fate of the Day and Prequel.

Belmond, a global luxury travel company, worked with the NYT's advertising arm on a brief to reach affluent audiences who were passionate about travel, culture and luxury. The team created a surround sound campaign, including an immersive “Life on a Train” digital Paid Post, which highlighted Belmond’s luxurious seven trains around the world and additional BrandMatch targeting.

The Train Travel sponsorship achieved a 1.01% CTRs. Overall, the campaign generated 17 million impressions worldwide and 220,000 content views.

Poce said “we will continue to work on personalization, using AI as a way to drive additional performance.”