Head-to-head: the prestige pair
NYT vs WSJ for advertisers
The two American papers whose names are themselves part of the ad. Only one will tell you its price in advance.
The structural difference is transparency: the WSJ publishes its 2026 rate card ($352.53 to $1,437.98 per column inch, $181,185 national color page), while the NYT is quote-only through its sales team. On audience: the Journal sells business decision-makers, the Times sells national cultural reach. Category fit decides the rest.
Source: WSJ 2026 General Advertising Rate Card, Issue #92, effective Jan 1 2026, retrieved Jul 31, 2026.
| Dimension | NYT | WSJ |
|---|---|---|
| Rate transparency | Quote-only; no public card | Published 2026 card, Issue #92 |
| Documented print price | None public | $1,437.98/col. in. national, color, open |
| Documented circulation | Not published on its ad site | 412,428 US print (Sept 2025 AAM, per card) |
| Regional print options | Sold via desk; ask | Regional editions on the card, Western cheapest |
| Contract discounts | Negotiated per program | 5-35% spend tiers, printed on the card |
| Buying process | Consultation via advertising.nytimes.com | Card first, then the desk |
Source: NYT Advertising (advertising.nytimes.com), no public rate card, retrieved Jul 31, 2026. NYT posture verified at retrieval; WSJ figures per its 2026 card.
The effective-CPM question, answered honestly
A true CPM comparison needs both papers’ prices and circulations, and the Times publishes neither for print. What can be said: the WSJ side of the fraction is fully documented (price above, circulation 412,428), so a buyer holding an NYT quote can compute both CPMs in minutes with the estimator and the Times’s quoted figure. That asymmetry is itself useful: the desk that shows its numbers first has conceded your benchmark.
Verdict by category
Which paper, for whom
Financial services, B2B, executive recruitment, shareholder messages: the Journal, where the reader is professionally obliged to be. Books, arts, luxury consumer, advocacy aimed at the broad national conversation: the Times. Open letters wanting maximum media pickup historically favor the Times’s newsroom-adjacent audience; open letters to markets favor the Journal. Deeper profiles: NYT, WSJ; the third national option is covered in WSJ vs USA Today.