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It started with a joke: "The New York Times is a games company that has a cute little newspaper side hustle." They were, of course, referring to Wordle - AKA "that weird little thing all your friends brag about on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/etc." 

That joke was followed up by some very serious statistics that you can find in our Research section - stats that quite frankly, blew us away. Turns out, Wordle is a runaway success that is credited with helping the Times bring in hundreds of thousands of subscribers (and millions and millions in new revenue). 

At a time when so much of the news business is desperately fighting for every nickel of revenue, seeing a news organization as fusty and old-school as the Times use a digital game so effectively, lit a lightbulb over our heads. Thing is, games are really expensive, and small-to-midsize publishers can't afford to build their own. 

Worse, syndicated games take readers AWAY from the news sites; this at a time when the other critical problem for publishers is dwindling audience attention and engagement. 

So. How do we address these twin problems with a game?