You Can Now Shop New York Times Cooking Recipes Thanks to Its Instacart Tie-Up

Shoppers can now order ingredients for New York Times Cooking recipes thanks to a new two-year partnership with grocery delivery platform Instacart, the companies announced today. While the integration should lead to more purchases through Instacart, the publisher gets access to audiences through the commerce platform.

A handful of recipes are available in the Instacart application and on its website, letting foodies order the ingredients from a local grocer for same-day pickup. On the NYT Cooking website, people can add the ingredients for any recipe to an Instacart order. Later this summer, that capability will also roll out on the NYT Cooking app.

“We’re really excited to be teaming up with Instacart for this first-of-its-kind collaboration to make it easier not only for people to discover and be inspired by New York Times Cooking, but to actually shop and move toward action,” Joy Robins, global chief advertising officer at The New York Times Co., told ADWEEK.

Content and commerce converge

While the initial collaboration is fairly modest—only a few recipes are available on Instacart, and there is no data sharing deal and no new ad formats related to the recipes—it’s an example of a retailer-digital publisher partnership that analyst Andrew Lipsman predicts will define the next era of retail media.

“[The NYT Cooking and Instacart deal is] one of the best examples I can think of in terms of the convergence of content and commerce,” Lipsman said.

“There will be … deeper partnerships, integrations, maybe even some M&A (mergers and acquisitions),” Lipsman said. “But in terms of the broader trend of media companies partnering with retailers and RMNs (retail media networks) around content adjacencies, this is an almost perfect example.”

The New York Times declined to share the financial terms of the deal.

More accessible recipes

The first recipes hitting Instacart’s properties are more accessible dishes, like halloumi with corn, cherry tomatoes and basil, and dumpling tomato salad with chili crisp binaigrette explained NYT Cooking general manager Camilla Velasquez. The recipes were chosen based on the company’s data indicating that people don’t always cook the recipes they read because it’s too daunting.

“We have a lot of people who feel that New York Times Cooking is amazing for inspiration,” Velasquez explained, “but they have a hard time imagining that the recipe is achievable.”

Focusing first on simpler recipes with the Instacart collaboration, Velasquez hopes that the ability to order ingredients from a familiar grocer will mean that more people will see NYT Cooking dishes as possible, leading the way for more ambitious meals down the road. Eventually, she hopes to be able to target readers with recipes that use ingredients they’ve purchased for a previous meal and need to use up.

By launching now, five months ahead of the holiday season, Velasquez also aims to have a good amount of data before Thanksgiving, which she described as NYT Cooking’s Super Bowl.

There aren’t any recipe-specific ad opportunities right now, but the two companies could offer brands a unique placement as the integration matures.

“As consumers continue to find ways to save them time—like shopping via Instacart—shortcutting buying the right products for recipes is the next iteration,” Dave Kersey, chief media officer at GSD&M, told ADWEEK. “This is a great opportunity for brands to stand out and drive trial among consumers who might not have known or tried a specific product before.”

While NYT Cooking wouldn’t share how many subscribers it has either through stand-alone or bundled subscriptions, over 100 million people visited the website and app for a recipe in 2023, Robins said. In the company’s most recent earnings report in May, CEO Meredith Levien said the share of New York Times subscribers spending time on its website and apps was at its highest point since the pandemic-era surge.

“The New York Times is renowned for offering rigorously tested and delicious recipe inspiration, and now home cooks can turn their inspiration into immediate action in a few clicks with Instacart,” Daniel Danker, chief product officer at Instacart, said in a statement.