Every long-running ad NYTimes runs on Facebook & Instagram — pulled from the public Meta Ad Library, x-rayed by the same system that runs ad accounts autonomously.
Active ads
683
Winning set
149
30+ days live
Longest live
95d
App rating
4.79★
739K ratings
Brand palette
The short version
Key facts
- As of August 3, 2026, NYTimes runs 683 active ads in Meta's Ad Library across Facebook and Instagram; 149 of them have survived 30 or more days of continuous delivery.
- Its longest-running ad has been live for 95 days.
- The winning set splits 67% video, 23% static, 10% carousel.
- The most common message angle is seasonal recipe hook, carried by 32% of the winning set.
- The winning ads speak mainly to Weeknight Meal Decider (32% of ads) and Daily Puzzle Break Seeker (28%).
- All winning copy runs in English.
- In App Store reviews, the loudest praise goes to content quality & trust (18% of mentions) and the loudest complaint is editorial bias (18%).
- The App Store listing holds 4.79 stars across 739,445 ratings.
The winning set
Live Meta ads gallery
149 ads have survived 30+ days of continuous delivery, out of 683 currently active. Below: 30 creatives picked to span every angle and buyer the account runs; the ×N badge counts the ads running each one. Tap any card for its Meta Ad Library record. Sorted by longest live: the account's most proven creatives lead, podium first.
95d image EN
A hand-drawn illustration depicting a person sitting on top of a box filled with people looking at their phones.
91d video ×2 ads EN
Australia, your #1 Wordle opener is...
88d image EN
A group of three people standing in a sunlit, arched stone corridor looking out into a lush garden courtyard.
88d video ×2 ads EN
The New York Times headline 'South Korea's City of Books' appearing over a slow zoom-out of a bookshelf.
88d image EN
A wide, static shot of a massive, multi-story wooden bookshelf bathed in dramatic, directional sunlight.
88d image EN
An infographic illustration showing an alarm clock, a cyclist, a DNA capsule, and a runner connected to a central biological pathway.
87d image EN
Stop scrolling if you want to make money online.
83d dco EN
A group of friends enjoying a vibrant brunch with Tabasco sauce.
82d dco EN
The Athletic NY WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED.
82d video ×3 ads EN
Cool treats for warm days.
82d video ×3 ads EN
Who's in your crew? Here's who made the cut for my Times family subscription.
82d dco EN
SF WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED.
82d video EN
I'm a be the best that you ever done saw
82d video EN
I'm a be the best that you ever done saw.
82d video EN
I'ma be the best that you ever done saw, huh.
82d video EN
81d video EN
80d image ×2 ads EN
80d video EN
77d video ×2 ads EN
74d image EN
33d video EN
33d video ×2 ads EN
33d video EN
33d video ×3 ads EN
33d video ×3 ads EN
33d video ×3 ads EN
33d video ×3 ads EN
33d video ×3 ads EN
32d video EN
+75 more winning creatives in the full set, with every hook and persona call — free with a Google account.
The x-ray — every winner analyzed frame by frame
What the winning set is actually doing
Language distribution — where the winning set actually runs
Share of the winning set per copy language. Translation is a deliberate spend decision: a language earning survivors is a market the money already believes in.
English
100% · 149 ads
Format split — statics vs video in the winning set
What survives 30+ days by medium.
video 100 ads · 67%
static 34 ads · 23%
carousel 15 ads · 10%
Persona coverage — who the winning ads speak to
HyperScale agents read NYTimes's buyer personas out of the winning set itself, then tagged every ad with the buyer it addresses.
Weeknight Meal Decider
32% · 48 ads
Daily Puzzle Break Seeker
28% · 41 ads
Hometown Team Diehard
20% · 30 ads
Aspirational Lifestyle Browser
6% · 9 ads
Curious Deep-Dive Reader
6% · 9 ads
Household Subscription Organizer
2% · 3 ads
Campus-Stage Young Adult
1% · 2 ads
Mixed intent
5% · 7 ads
Every x-rayed creative is tagged individually (who it sells to, its angle) from its HyperScale x-ray: transcript, casting, story beats. Coverage counts the ads each creative carries. Mixed intent groups the winners without one clear addressed buyer, so the bars cover the full set.
Angle mix — what the money says works
Every winner tagged with the message angle it leads with, and the languages it runs in — longevity under spend is the only public vote that counts.
seasonal recipe hook
32% · 48 ads
comprehensive coverage claim
21% · 32 ads
evening puzzle reset
14% · 21 ads
puzzle maker authority
13% · 20 ads
aspirational lifestyle imagery
7% · 10 ads
curiosity deep dive
6% · 9 ads
product showcase
4% · 6 ads
family subscription value
2% · 3 ads
The winning set, read from the creatives themselves — the top 15 analyzed winners, hook by hook.
| Days live | Ads | Lang | Angle | Persona | Opening hook | On-screen headline | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91d | ×2 | en | evening puzzle reset | Daily Puzzle Break Seeker | Australia, your #1 Wordle opener is... | Australia, your #1 Wordle opener is... | 9s |
| 88d | ×1 | en | curiosity deep dive | Curious Deep-Dive Reader | The New York Times headline 'South Korea's City of Books' appearing over a slow zoom-out of a bookshelf. | South Korea's City of Books | 9s |
| 82d | ×4 | en | seasonal recipe hook | Weeknight Meal Decider | Cool treats for warm days. | Cool treats for warm days. | — |
| 82d | ×1 | en | family subscription value | Household Subscription Organizer | Who's in your crew? Here's who made the cut for my Times family subscription. | Who's in your crew? | 28s |
| 82d | ×1 | en | comprehensive coverage claim | Hometown Team Diehard | I'm a be the best that you ever done saw | MAKE THE PERFECT GETAWAY | 6s |
| 82d | ×1 | en | comprehensive coverage claim | Hometown Team Diehard | I'm a be the best that you ever done saw. | INFINITI QX80 SPORT | 6s |
| 82d | ×1 | en | comprehensive coverage claim | Hometown Team Diehard | I'ma be the best that you ever done saw, huh. | MAKE THE PERFECT GETAWAY | 6s |
+90 more winners, hook by hook, with per-ad angle and persona calls — free with a Google account. Browse the full set ↗ or claim the workspace
Creative strategy
The dissection
The New York Times just rotated a third of its Meta ad set in a week: winners jumped from 132 to 149, with 46 new ads and 29 retirements since July 27. The engine driving that growth is still recipes: the seasonal recipe hook angle now covers 48 of 149 winning ads, all video, zero on-camera humans, feeding one persona, the Weeknight Meal Decider.
The Recipe Loop Is The Engine
48 of 149 winning ads run the seasonal recipe hook angle across 26 x-rayed creatives, every one straight video with no on-camera talent, just product and app footage of recipe content on screen. The primary text 'Warm weather? We have options.' alone carries 47 ads. All 48 recipe-angle ads map to the Weeknight Meal Decider, the single largest persona in the account.
Fast DCO Sells Local Sports
32 winning ads run the comprehensive coverage claim angle across 24 x-rayed creatives, built almost entirely as ~6-second dco units with no human cast, pure product and app footage of bylines and team coverage. 30 of those ads carry the Hometown Team Diehard persona tag, the second-largest buyer segment behind recipes and a distinct crowd from the puzzle and lifestyle audiences.
Ten-Second Puzzle Videos Persist
21 winning ads run the evening puzzle reset angle across 17 x-rayed creatives, cut as ~10-second videos with no presenters, just app footage of the puzzle interface. Add the puzzle maker authority angle (20 ads) and the Daily Puzzle Break Seeker persona now covers 41 ads total, the second-biggest buyer group after Weeknight Meal Decider's 48.
Ads Promise Calm, App Crashes
Across 8,071 reviews (4.79★ lifetime), dark mode and UI complaints top the list at 47 mentions, just ahead of editorial bias (46) and content quality/trust (45). The disconnect: recipe and puzzle creative sells frictionless daily use, but 41 reviews cite app crashes or freezes, 25 flag iOS/device compatibility issues (pre-iOS 16 devices locked out), and 17 report charges continuing after subscribers cancel.
46 New Winners, 29 Retired
The winning set grew from 132 to 149 ads this week: 46 new entrants, 29 retirements since July 27. Casting stays thin across the refresh, only 24% of x-rayed creatives use an on-camera presenter (mostly female 25-34, 9 appearances), while hook mechanics spread thin too: demo (8), value proposition headline (7), headline-led value proposition (7), testimonial (6).
What we'd test next
- Video, no-people, product/app-footage creative reusing the seasonal recipe hook angle with a cooler-season variant ('Cozy dinners? We have options.'), aimed at the Weeknight Meal Decider persona already carrying 48 of 149 ads.
- ~6-second dco creative extending the comprehensive coverage claim angle into college-sports territory with a direct-address hook, aimed at the Campus-Stage Young Adult persona currently sitting at just 2 ads.
- On-camera presenter video using a testimonial hook to sell the NYT Games bundle ('Get in on the fun with New York Times Games,' 13 ads), targeting the Household Subscription Organizer persona, a casting mechanic this account uses in only 24% of creatives overall.
- Non-English video reproducing the evening puzzle reset angle and a demo hook for the Daily Puzzle Break Seeker persona (41 ads), opening language whitespace in a set that runs 100% English across all 149 winning ads.
The HyperScale batch
New ad concepts, generated for NYTimes
HyperScale agents are producing an original round of ad concepts for NYTimes, built from the winning angles above, the brand's real App Store assets, and what reviewers actually say. This page updates when the batch drops.
This analysis lives in a ready-made HyperScale workspace. If you work on NYTimes, it's yours: we hand it over personally, usually within a day.
Customer voice — 4202 recent reviews analyzed
What reviewers actually say
Objections the ads must pre-empt
- Requiring iOS 16+ locks out otherwise-working older devices
- Ads still appear despite paid subscription
- Cancelling/refunding subscriptions is described as very difficult
- Coverage seen by some as biased/one-sided on major issues
- App frequently crashes, freezes, or fails to load after updates
Review-theme mix
Share of analyzed review mentions per theme — ＋ praise, − complaint, ~ mixed. Themes, not individual reviews.
− editorial bias
18% · 46
+ content quality & trust
18% · 45
− app crashes & performance
16% · 41
− ios/device compatibility
10% · 25
− ad overload
5% · 14
− subscription & cancellation friction
7% · 17
~ dark mode & UI requests
18% · 47
− pricing & paywall
8% · 21
“every day for now 20 years, the best app from the best newspaper & brilliant clique of fact-checking troublemakers in the world”
“every day for now 20 years, the best app from the best newspaper & brilliant clique of fact-checking troublemakers in the world”
“One of the last places where truth matters”
“One of the last places where truth matters”
“The depth and breadth of reporting makes the NYT essential”
“The depth and breadth of reporting makes the NYT essential”
“NYTimes News are reliable and trustworthy, which are based on truth data & fact reporting plus investigative & detail analysis”
“The new tab is too much work, scrolling through ads and selecting each one”
“I need to have honest, unbiased, up to the minute, quality reporting on events around the world, as they happen. The New York Times delivers that consistently and in spades.”
“Being a regular listener and reader of the New York Times for two years now has made me a better, smarter, more thoughtful person”
“Being a regular listener and reader of the New York Times for two years now has made me a better, smarter, more thoughtful person”
“It's written for people with a functioning brain”
“It's written for people with a functioning brain”
“NYTimes News are reliable and trustworthy, which are based on truth data & fact reporting plus investigative & detail analysis”
“the one-sided narrative around politics and the Middle East has pushed me to cancel my subscription”
“I need to have honest, unbiased, up to the minute, quality reporting on events around the world, as they happen. The New York Times delivers that consistently and in spades.”
“I'll find a source for news that doesn't publish such blatant propaganda.”
“not creating false premises with click bait article headlines the times provide a tremendous source of knowledge to the public in a clear and concise manner”
“What used to be a newspaper of news is now a left wing propaganda sheet”
“the one-sided narrative around politics and the Middle East has pushed me to cancel my subscription”
“What it seems to be recording these days is cognitive dissonance, flailing reactions, of the establishment elite”
“I'll find a source for news that doesn't publish such blatant propaganda.”
“NYT has adopted Israeli version of news without sharing Palestinian side of the story.”
“What used to be a newspaper of news is now a left wing propaganda sheet”
“the app basically doesn't load. It stall out and crashes about 90% of the time”
“NYT has adopted Israeli version of news without sharing Palestinian side of the story.”
“This app only works about 50 percent of the time”
“What it seems to be recording these days is cognitive dissonance, flailing reactions, of the establishment elite”
“All the other apps manage to load photos and stories just fine. NYT: circles of death about 50%.”
“the app basically doesn't load. It stall out and crashes about 90% of the time”
“My NYT app constantly freezes on my iPhone 11. The app has been updated several times, and still the problem persists”
“This app only works about 50 percent of the time”
“as of about 3 months ago the app is getting very laggy and is..very..slow..to..load”
“All the other apps manage to load photos and stories just fine. NYT: circles of death about 50%.”
“App has been updated for use with iOS16 and up, which isn't supported on my old IPhone 6S Plus. Useless”
“Sign in. Then asks you to pick alerts. But there is no save. Or back. Or anything. Deleted app. Reinstalled. Still doesn't let me get past this point”
“The new version has made my NYTimes subscription useless on my iPad Air 2 as ios 16 is required”
“the new app fails to open 2 out of 3 times. It then tells me I have no internet connection when I do.”
“the NYT policy is to encourage planned obsolescence, working hand in glove with Apple. This is an anti-customer, anti-environment and anti-earth policy”
“App has been updated for use with iOS16 and up, which isn't supported on my old IPhone 6S Plus. Useless”
“every 2 seconds a full-screen Amazon Web Services takes over the screen and has to be dismissed. Literally it is only AWS and happens up to 10 times when reading a single article.”
“I'm going to have to buy a new iPad because I can't download the new updates because they require iOS 16.0 +”
“the pop up add comes up every 5 seconds. I can't even read a headline before another ad pops up.”
“the NYT policy is to encourage planned obsolescence, working hand in glove with Apple. This is an anti-customer, anti-environment and anti-earth policy”
“the in-article ads have become so excessive that I've had to switch back to reading the web version with an ad blocker”
“the pop up add comes up every 5 seconds. I can't even read a headline before another ad pops up.”
“when these take up almost 50% of an article as of recent, a reasonable reading experience is no longer possible”
“Why am I paying a subscription fee if you're still going to show me ads on the app”
“the in-article ads have become so excessive that I've had to switch back to reading the web version with an ad blocker”
“They make it impossible to cancel your subscription”
“They make it impossible to cancel your subscription”
“I've been trying to cancel my subscription for 2 years and have an email which confirms cancellation, however these fraudsters keep charging my card a couple of times a month.”
“I've been trying to cancel my subscription for 2 years and have an email which confirms cancellation, however these fraudsters keep charging my card a couple of times a month.”
“Give us dark mode and I'll give you 5 stars”
“Give us dark mode and I'll give you 5 stars”
“j'ai du plaisir à lire le NYT, mais je trouve votre tarif $$$ vraiment cher”
The market around it
Brands competing for the same feed
Keep exploring the radar
More Meta ads teardowns
More News advertisers on the radar
Also winning with the product showcase angle
The biggest ad sets on the radar
Quick answers
FAQ
How many ads is NYT running on Meta right now?
683 active ads sit in the Meta Ad Library, with the x-ray covering the top 649 by impressions. 149 of those have survived 30+ days to qualify as winners, the longest-running ad hitting 95 days.
What languages and angles dominate NYT's Meta ads?
All 149 winning ads run in English. The seasonal recipe hook leads at 48 ads, followed by comprehensive coverage claim (32), evening puzzle reset (21), puzzle maker authority (20), aspirational lifestyle imagery (10), and curiosity deep dive (9).
What creative pattern is actually working?
Across 96 Gemini-x-rayed creatives, video runs 67% versus image 23% and dco 10%. Only 24% use an on-camera presenter (mostly female 25-34, 9 appearances); the rest lean on product and app footage alone, the pattern behind the 48-ad recipe angle.
What do reviewers complain about most?
Of 8,071 reviews (4.79★ lifetime), dark mode/UI requests lead at 47 mentions, then editorial bias (46), content quality (45), and app crashes (41). Reviewers also flag cancellation friction (17) and ads appearing for paying subscribers (14 ad-overload mentions).