Parent · Commerce media
Future plc (LON: FUTR)
- TechRadartechradar.com
- Tom's Guidetomsguide.com
Conflict noted
Same parent as Tom's Guide, T3, LaptopMag. Treat verdicts as correlated with sister sites rather than independent.
Investigation · Auto-updated from the trust catalogue
Who owns the review sites you trust?
The “best of” lists you read before buying a vacuum, a mattress, a pair of headphones — nearly all of them are owned by a handful of commerce-media conglomerates whose primary business is affiliate-revenue optimization. Most don’t disclose this on the page. We do, because if a reviewer’s parent company has a financial relationship with the products being reviewed, you should know.
Review sources tracked
25
across 23 distinct parents
Owned by commerce media
7
under 6 conglomerates
Genuinely independent
4
nonprofits + reader-supported
Why this matters
Three sister sites are not three opinions.
When CNET, Tom’s Guide, and TechRadar all pick the same product, you might think that’s strong consensus. Actually it’s two parents (Red Ventures and Future plc) with correlated incentives running ranking pipelines optimized for the same KPI: affiliate revenue.
None of this is illegal. None of it is necessarily nefarious. Reviewers at these publications often genuinely try to call it straight. But the editorial firewall is the parent’s promise, and the parent operates dozens of comparison and lead-generation properties whose business model rewards driving affiliate clicks. When the verdicts converge, ask whether you’re reading three independent reads or one commercial position expressed three times.
The map below is generated directly from VerdictAI’s public trust catalogue — the same data that informs the source weighting on every roundup page on this site. If a cluster is wrong or incomplete, email hello@verdictai.reviews.
Conglomerates whose primary business is affiliate-commerce optimization. Editorial independence is asserted; the parent’s revenue model is commerce-led.
2 sites
Parent · Commerce media
Red Ventures
- CNETcnet.com
Conflict noted
Red Ventures is a commerce-marketing conglomerate (Bankrate, Healthline, The Points Guy, ZDNet, Lonely Planet, MyMove). Affiliate-revenue optimization is a core business KPI. Editorial independence is asserted but the parent operates dozens of comparison/lead-gen properties.
Parent · Commerce media
Gannett (USA Today Network)
- Reviewedreviewed.com
Conflict noted
Gannett operates commerce partnerships across its network. Reviewed runs an affiliate model; editorial policy is published but verify rankings against independent labs.
Parent · Commerce media
Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: ZD)
- PCMagpcmag.com
Conflict noted
Ziff Davis operates a portfolio that includes IGN, Mashable, Lifehacker, RetailMeNot, Speedtest. Affiliate revenue is a primary KPI; editorial is editorial but business model is commerce-led.
Parent · Commerce media
Yahoo (majority owned by Apollo Global Management)
- Engadgetengadget.com
Parent · Commerce media
Trustpilot Group plc (LSE: TRST)
- Trustpilottrustpilot.com
Conflict noted
Trustpilot sells review-collection software to the same businesses being reviewed. Repeatedly flagged for moderation failures and conflict-of-interest in independent reporting.
Established editorial publishers with disclosed methodology and standards. Some have commerce-affiliate properties; conflicts noted where relevant.
Parent · Editorial media
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT)
- The New York Timesnytimes.com
- Wirecutterwirecutter.com
Conflict noted
NYT acquired Wirecutter in 2016 specifically for affiliate-commerce revenue. Wirecutter publishes its own affiliate policy; editorial is walled off but the parent's revenue model is commerce-driven.
Parent · Editorial media
Nash Holdings (Jeff Bezos, sole owner)
- The Washington Postwashingtonpost.com
Conflict noted
Owner Jeff Bezos founded and chairs Amazon. WaPo publishes a disclosure when covering Amazon directly; when WaPo Recommends covers products sold on Amazon, treat as a potential conflict and weigh independent labs higher.
Parent · Editorial media
Condé Nast (Advance Publications)
- Ars Technicaarstechnica.com
Parent · Editorial media
Vox Media
- The Vergetheverge.com
Parent · Editorial media
Hearst Magazines
- Good Housekeepinggoodhousekeeping.com
Reviews hosted by the seller. Useful for verified-purchase volume signals, but the platform also sells the products being rated.
Parent · Retailer
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
- Amazon customer reviewsamazon.com
Conflict noted
Reviews on amazon.com are hosted by the seller. Amazon also sells the products being rated. We use aggregate ratings + counts only; we do not quote individual amazon.com customer reviews.
Parent · Retailer
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY)
- Best Buy customersbestbuy.com
Parent · Retailer
Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST)
- Costco memberscostco.com
Parent · Retailer
Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
- Walmart customerswalmart.com
Parent · Retailer
Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT)
- Target customerstarget.com
Parent · Retailer
Newegg Commerce, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEGG)
- Newegg customersnewegg.com
Parent · Retailer
B&H Foto & Electronics Corp. (privately held)
- B&H Photo customersbhphotovideo.com
Parent · Retailer
The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD)
- Home Depot customershomedepot.com
Privately held, reader-supported, or single-mission. Affiliate revenue may exist but the parent doesn’t operate a portfolio of commerce properties.
Parent · Independent
iFixit, Inc. (privately held; right-to-repair mission)
- iFixitifixit.com
Parent · Independent
RTINGS.com Inc. (privately held; reader-supported)
- RTINGSrtings.com
Nonprofit advocacy publishers, member-funded or grant-funded, accepting no advertising from the categories they cover.
Parent · Nonprofit
Consumer Reports (Consumers Union, 501(c)(3) nonprofit)
- Consumer Reportsconsumerreports.org
Parent · Nonprofit
The Markup Foundation (501(c)(3) nonprofit)
- The Markupthemarkup.org
How we built this
The trust catalogue is public, auditable, and the page above is generated from it.
VerdictAI reads what reviewers across the internet have already written, scores every source for trustworthiness, and synthesizes the consensus. The ownership table that drives this page is the same data structure that drives the source weighting on every product roundup.
Adding or correcting a parent in the underlying catalogue automatically updates this page on the next deploy. There is no hand-maintained list to drift.
Sources are public filings (SEC 10-Ks, press releases, masthead disclosures, About pages) and reporting from media-business publications. Where a cluster’s conflict is contested or ambiguous, we say so in the note.