MARILYN CORNWELL: Marilyn's Photos - Aug 25 2026 - Ask the young, upwardly mobile professionals at Wirecutte

finally thought it was time to find out about "The young, upwardly mobile professionals at Wirecutter." There is a product review each day in the New York Times referencing Wirecutter. It turns out the New York Times owns the review service. It does testing and research to recommend the best products.

What might their most famous review be? It is their guide to the best umbrellas. And the next is the air purifier - the Coway Airmega Mighty at $319.00 (I assume U.S.). This is the second most long-running review. That has been going on for a decade. The reviews are known for being in-depth, long-form testing guides. The choices are narrowed to one or two best picks, rather than a list.

The one name we all would recognize in the consumer product review field is Consumer Reports. This is a non-profit organization, and it buys and tests everything anonymously with its own funds. It focuses on things like cars, appliances and other physical goods.

Wirecutter earns most of its revenue from affiliate marketing - that means including links to its recommendations. The story goes that the staff who write the reviews are not informed about what the commissions are. Also these are distinct organizations with a a separation between the news and wirecutter organizations. That would be needed because of commercial advertisers might want to influence decisions.

There are 3,000 product picks each year, and somehow Wirecutter is famous for its review of this vanilla-looking box - the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier.