From “Diversions”
to “Games”.

The Times launched nytimes.com on January 22, 1996, under the name The New York Times on the Web.^[1] Two years earlier, in May 1994, it already had an @times home page on AOL.^[10] In our oldest capture, from November 12, 1996, almost nothing is text. The front page is a single image file, index.gif, wired to a server-side image map: you clicked a section name, and the server worked out from the coordinates where you meant to go. The whole HTML holds about 30 words.

A line of text sits above the picture: Welcome! First-time users register here or take a QuickTour of the site. Where you lived decided the price.

Nieman Lab, looking back in 2016, adds two launch details. For $1.95 a story, readers could download articles to their computers. And the online version of the Times' own launch story got the address slightly wrong, with one slash after “http:” instead of two.^[11]

The website had a color photo almost a year before the printed paper had a color front page. The crowds in Zaire on our November 1996 picture are in color. The Times printed Page 1 in color for the first time on October 16, 1997.^[1]

The April 15, 1997 capture keeps the frame and swaps the knicks celtics one on one promotion in the top right corner for a Books logo marked NEW: and WHERE TO FIND WHAT TO READ. The picture inside is dated Monday, March 10, 1997, about five weeks before the HTML around it was captured.

By December 1998 the picture is gone and the homepage is real HTML, a narrow column under the masthead. The date line reads FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1998 | Site Updated 8:50 PM, and a box beside the masthead gives the NYC Weather as 42° F. A rail on the left lists the sections. The lead story is the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment vote, with a link to VIDEO: Live Coverage of Judiciary Committee.

Lower down, BREAKING NEWS FROM A.P. stamps each wire headline with its minute, from 8:26 to 8:50 p.m. EST. On This Day offers the Times front page of December 11, 1941, when Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. In the code, the navigation image map sits inside a tag of the Times' own invention, one no browser knows: <NYT_TOOLBARMAP version="1.0" type="homepage" location="top">.

April 22, 1999 keeps the same frame and adds a photo on the right: relatives and friends of the victims at Columbine High School after a memorial service. The markets box now warns 20 Min. Delay.

The weather box says 50° F. Right after it, the code holds a second reading that is switched off in a comment: <!-- <nobr>Showers<br>51&deg; F/10&deg; C</nobr> -->. Showers and 51 degrees, in Celsius too. The page shows only the 50.

The November 9, 2000 capture shows the homepage with the presidential election still unresolved. The headline is Bush Barely Ahead of Gore In Florida; Recount Holds Key, over a photo of workers recounting ballots at the Miami-Dade election headquarters. The time stamp under the masthead says 9:24 AM ET. The story under the photo begins: For the first time in more than a century, the winner of a presidential election remained unknown a full day after the polls closed.

The page now has a left rail and three columns of news. The left one has turned into a long menu that runs from Business to Week in Review, and near its bottom, under Newspaper, it asks for the printed paper: Subscribe at 50%. In the middle column a box headed THE 2000 ELECTION offers Complete Election Results, E-mail Updates and Discuss the Election. Two years earlier the page had a site update time. Now each story in the side column carries its own, from 2:08 to 7:24 a.m.

The June 2001 capture is a portal, stamped UPDATED FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2001 8:40 PM ET. The search box at the top has a drop-down that sets how far back to look, from Today's News to Since 1996: the site's archive starts the year the site did. Down the left rail a small banner says SWIM AT HOME: Endless Pool™ Swim Machine Complete Kit for $16,900.

A year later the same banner is back with a new price, Complete Kit for $17,400. From 2002 to 2004 the top right corner holds two links, LOG IN and REGISTER NOW., followed in red by It's Free!. The 2003 code carries a text ad that borrows the paper's motto: All the Classical Music That's Fit to Play. By March 2004 the HTML labels each ad with a comment that names its campaign, and one reads campaign="Endlesspools-3508-nyt8".

In June 2005 the browser tab, which said The New York Times on the Web in our 1996–2004 captures, reads The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The masthead still carries ON THE WEB. The search drop-down now offers NYT 1851-1995, and a new box on the right counts down the Most E-Mailed articles.

Six months after that capture, on December 15, 2005, the Times disclosed the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program, and its company timeline says the article was first published online to preempt an injunction.^[1]

The June 15, 2006 page is a redesign. The masthead moves to the middle of the page, and ON THE WEB is gone from under it. A grey bar across the top lists Home Page, My Times, Today's Paper, Video, Most Popular and Times Topics, and in the far corner, Free 14-Day Trial. Near the start of the code a comment names the layout: <!--New_NYT_Homepage -->.

TechCrunch reported the redesign on April 3, 2006, pointing to a video area and a most popular section with most emailed, most blogged and most searched articles (reported).^[3] Scroll down the 2006 capture and there it is: a box headed MOST POPULAR with three tabs, E-MAILED, BLOGGED and SEARCHED. Just above it, a box with the TimesSelect logo shows a World Cup photo. TimesSelect put columnists and the archive behind a fee of $49.95 a year or $7.95 a month,^[4] and the 2006 code adds a line: TimesSelect, FREE, with home delivery of The New York Times.

In June 2007 two Continental Airlines ads flank the masthead and the top bar still says Free 14-Day Trial. Three months later the Times ended TimesSelect, and subscribers who had paid were to be reimbursed.^[4][5] By June 2008 the top bar offers Get Home Delivery instead, and Movado watch ads sit on both sides of the masthead.

June 16, 2009 opens with a bar across the top: Welcome to TimesPeople, TimesPeople Lets You Share and Discover the Best of NY..., and two buttons, Get Started and No, thanks. Under it the masthead sits between two identical ads for the printed paper: The Weekender, Friday. Saturday. Sunday., For as low as $3.80 a week. A yellow strip says Try the new Global Edition.

In June 2010 a puppy with a newspaper takes the right corner: Subscribe to home delivery. For 50% off. The left one still sells The Weekender, For as low as $3.80 a week. Beside the search box a link says Try the New Times Skimmer.

On March 28, 2011 the Times put most of its digital content behind a paywall.^[1] The Los Angeles Times reported the terms: up to 20 articles, photo galleries and videos a month for free, then plans from $15 for four weeks (reported).^[6] Our June 2011 capture has the same two paper ads around the masthead, The Weekender and the puppy. The digital plan turns up in the code as a link, NYT Digital Subscriptions.

By June 15, 2012 the ask has moved into the masthead row. On the left, small icons of devices and a newspaper sit under Subscribe to The Times. On the right are two buttons, HOME DELIVERY and DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION.

On August 27, 2013, attackers took over the nytimes.com address itself. They got control of the domain name through the paper's registrar, Melbourne IT, and the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility. WIRED reported that some visitors were served a large image of the group's logo, while most just got timeout errors.^[12]

Our October 2013 capture, two months later, is back to selling. A navy band runs across its full width: JUST 99¢ for 4 WEEKS OF A DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION, with a red TRY IT NOW button. On both sides of the masthead the Times advertises its own app: Download the new NYTimes app designed for iOS 7.

In January 2014 long articles stopped breaking into pages. The new article pages launched on January 8 dropped pagination, so a long story ran on one web page. For them the designers worked with Matthew Carter on a version of the Cheltenham typeface with a higher x-height, to stay readable at small sizes.^[7]

The homepage in our June 15, 2014 capture still has ads beside the masthead, though its lead headlines are already set in italics. The offer has moved into the right corner, 4 WEEKS JUST 99¢, and the World Cup box is headed HOW WE PLAY THE GAME.

The June 15, 2015 capture is cleaner. The ads beside the masthead are gone, and so are most of the boxes and rules of the old grid. One row of section names runs under the masthead, from World to Real Estate. The Opinion Pages fill the right, and a new column called Watching lists short items. The top corner offers U.S., International and 中文.

The code of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 captures opens with a notice our stills don't show: NYTimes.com no longer supports Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Please upgrade your browser.

From 2016 the right column ends with a small black-and-white grid, THE CROSSWORD » and Play Today's Puzzle. That puzzle is 54 years older than the website.

In the June 2016 capture the masthead image itself didn't load, and a broken-image icon sits where the logo should be. The 2016 language menu adds ESPAÑOL. Designer Allen Tan lists a comprehensive homepage redesign in 2018, including changes to how stories were chosen and promoted.^[8] Our June 2018 capture still looks like the 2015 grid at the top. Its HTML also has a story called 9 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Times Subscription.

Several captures from 2019 onward render partly unstyled, with blue underlined links, oversized photos or blank placeholders. The October 15, 2019 page still has a scene: a CNN debate stage fills the lead slot with a countdown, THE DEBATE BEGINS IN, over Live Updates as 12 Democrats Get Ready to Debate in Ohio.

Those four lines sit in the live module's code, each under a reporter's name, before the debate had started. They read like templates waiting for real quotes. The still doesn't show them.

March 2, 2020: Coronavirus Updates: Scotland Reports Its First Case; Airlines Suspend Travel to Milan. Five more headlines follow on the virus and its effects before the page turns to Pete Buttigieg to Quit Democratic Presidential Race.

The Times announced the deal on January 31, 2022, at an undisclosed price in the low seven figures. Nearly two months after its 90-player day, Wordle had 300,000 players. The announcement said Wordle would be free for new and existing players when it moved to The Times, with no changes to its gameplay.^[9]

In the code of our October 2022 capture, the Play box lists Spelling Bee, The Crossword and Wordle, with its own line: Guess the 5-letter word with 6 chances.

A year earlier the October 2021 code had a box headed Play, with Spelling Bee in it. That capture also has a different browser title, The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, and a description that promises journalism from more than 150 countries around the world. October 2023 leads with Diplomats Race to Ease Gaza Crisis Amid Fears of Spreading Conflict.

The June 15, 2024 capture keeps its menu row under the masthead, and the row reads U.S., World, Business, Arts, Lifestyle, Opinion, Audio, Games, Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic. Each name has a small box for a drop-down. The Games menu in the code describes itself as Word games, logic puzzles and crosswords, including an extensive archive. NYT Cooking had launched on September 17, 2014.^[1]

October 2025 leads with Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela. Our last capture, from February 2026, opens on two live tabs, Grammy Awards and Trump Administration. In its code, the Games block is headed Daily puzzles and lists Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, The Crossword and The Mini Crossword.

In 1996 the list of sections on that one picture ended with Diversions and Web Specials. In 2024 the menu row has Games, next to Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic. The line inviting first-time users to register is gone. On May 6, 2026 the Times said it had crossed 13 million subscribers.^[1]