Wirecutter: Brian Lam

Brian Lam

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Updated: November 19th, 2023

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Brian Lam is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Wirecutter (now part of The New York Times Company), the most exemplary product suggestion service in the United States.

The site offers deals, product reviews, and buying advice for the users to make the best purchasing decision.

In 2010, Lam was working as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, a Gawker Media-owned tech site that received and reported on an Apple iPhone 4 months before the company released the highly anticipated device.

The founder left a high-profile position at Gizmodo to start a product review site without knowing how it would generate money.

Brian knew he wanted a user-friendly website with reviews that could be read in a matter of minutes, with the top items presented, all backed up by solid research.

However, when Brian started The Wirecutter in 2011, his business partners were concerned that the site’s updates were too small and infrequent to create a following on the web, where clickbait ruled the world.

Brian’s focused strategy eventually paid off; people trusted his suggestions, he recruited more writers, and traffic and income increased.

In 2015, Brian Lam’s website, The Wirecutter, generated 150 million dollars in e-commerce transactions.

The New York Times bought The Wirecutter for $30 million in 2016, and it was renamed simply as Wirecutter.

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