NYT Publishes Strands Sidekick No. 869 Hints, Rates July 20 Puzzle Moderate

Q: With a Wordle game show, is the NYT becoming an entertainment or news company?

The New York Times is becoming more of a diversified media company, not ceasing to be a news company. The evidence is in how it is building games into a major business line. Wordle, Strands, Connections and the broader NYT Games portfolio are no longer side features attached to a newspaper; they are subscription products with tens of millions of daily users and billions of annual plays. The new Strands Sidekick, with interactive hints, difficulty ratings and community comments, shows the Times is investing in game support and player retention much as entertainment companies do. The planned Wordle game show pushes that strategy further. The Times is not just licensing a brand; its executives are involved in producing the show, which signals a direct move into entertainment. That fits with statements from NYT Games leadership that the goal is to make the app a premier destination for digital puzzles, not merely a newspaper add-on. At the same time, the company’s core identity remains rooted in journalism. Games are part of a subscription-first model that also includes news, cooking and product recommendations. The Times appears to view puzzles as a “passion space” that brings in audiences, deepens loyalty and supports the wider business. So the better answer is that the NYT is now both: still a news organization, but increasingly also an entertainment business built around high-engagement, subscription-friendly products.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 19

Strands Sidekick No. 869 went live on July 19 UTC with spoiler-marked hints for the July 20, 2026 NYT Strands puzzle.
The New York Times rated the puzzle moderate, using an average of paid testers’ three-level difficulty scores: easy, moderate and challenging.
The post offers tap-to-reveal help for up to 3 theme words, showing either a first letter or direction of travel.
NYT said Strands releases at midnight in each player’s time zone and that it publishes 2 Sidekick posts daily to serve global solvers.