Machine Relations

New York Times Op-Ed Submission: How to Get a Guest Essay Published in 2026

How to submit a New York Times guest essay (the old op-ed): the form, length, exclusivity and fact-check rules, and what the Machine Relations Index shows AI engines cite.

Jaxon ParrottNov 7, 2026

To get an op-ed into The New York Times, submit a guest essay through the form on the Times Help Center: an original, exclusive argument of typically 800 to 1,200 words, built on your own expertise or experience, with the sources for your key claims linked in the text. The Times no longer calls them op-eds. Its Help Center says Opinion guest essays were known as Op-Eds because they ran opposite the editorial page, and says a member of its staff reads every submission without promising a reply to each.

The second question is the one most guides skip: will the AI engines your buyers ask repeat a Times byline? In the Machine Relations Index release of November 7, 2026, AI engines cited nytimes.com in 385 of 37,140 monitored answer runs (1.04%). 351 of those 385 came from Perplexity. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, which together answered 24,792 of the runs on the engine pages, never cited it. None of the Times's published segments sits in a business-to-business category. A guest essay is a way to reach readers and earn credibility; on this evidence it is not, by itself, a way into B2B answer engines.

Key Takeaways

Submit through the Times form. The Help Center says to complete the form, explain the professional or personal background that connects you to the argument, and link sources for key assertions.
Exclusivity is the rule that costs most. An essay must be original and exclusive to the Times and cannot have appeared elsewhere in any form, in print or online.
The Times fact-checks before it publishes. If an essay is accepted, the writer supplies an annotated copy listing the source for each factual assertion, and the Times prefers primary sources to secondary ones.
Do not expect a reply. The Help Center says the Times may not respond to everyone and that if you hear nothing within three business days you may submit the work elsewhere.
AI engines cite the Times unevenly. Perplexity accounts for 351 of 385 cited runs (91%) in the November 7, 2026 Index release; ChatGPT (8,770 runs), Claude (8,809) and Gemini (7,213) cited it in none.
The Times is cited on consumer questions. All 28 published segments are in consumer, family-software, gaming and news-topic categories.

What the Times asks for in a guest essay

The Times describes a guest essay as an argument in the author's voice, based on fact and drawn from expertise or experience, by people outside the newsroom. It names three common forms: experts sharing knowledge, first-person accounts, and public officials making their case. Its own test for a great essay is specific and checkable:

Requirement	What the Times says	What it means for a founder or executive
Subject	Newsworthy events or issues of broad public concern	Argue about the issue, not the company. A product announcement is not a subject.
Argument	An argument defined and substantiated with evidence; specific, original insight into a complicated problem	Bring a position a reader can disagree with, and the data that supports it.
Length	Typically 800 to 1,200 words, sometimes shorter or longer	Draft to the range before you submit.
Exclusivity	Original and exclusive to the Times, with no earlier appearance in any form, in print or online	Do not post the argument on your blog or LinkedIn first, and do not send it to a second outlet at the same time.
Conflicts	Writers avoid any conflict of interest or its appearance and follow the Times's ethical journalism policies	Disclose the tie. In our reading, an essay whose real purpose is to promote the author's company fails this test.
Fact-checking	An accepted essay is fact-checked, and the writer supplies an annotated copy listing sources for each factual assertion	Keep a source file as you write. The Times prefers a primary source, such as a research paper, to a news article about it.
Corrections	The Times cannot fix an error after publication without appending a correction, and corrections are permanently archived	Past errors count when it considers later work from a writer.

How to submit, step by step

Write the argument first. Pick a news issue where your expertise gives you standing, state the claim in one sentence, and gather the evidence behind it.
Link your sources inside the draft. The Times asks for hyperlinks in the text or sources in parentheses for key assertions.
Complete the submission form. The Help Center links the guest essay form. Explain the professional or personal background that connects you to the argument.
Hold the essay for three business days. The Times says it reads every submission but may not reply to everyone. In our reading, staying exclusive until then keeps the essay eligible; after three business days with no answer the Help Center says you may submit elsewhere.
If you are responding to a published piece, use Letters. The Times discourages guest essays that are primarily responses to other Opinion articles and points to the Letters page, [email protected].

Other routes the Times publishes

The same Help Center covers more than the text form, and the routes differ in who decides and what the page represents:

Route	Who decides	Use it when
Opinion guest essay (text)	Times Opinion editors, via the submission form	You hold an argument backed by expertise and can keep it exclusive.
Opinion video guest essay	The Times Opinion Video department, which accepts pitches	Your argument needs video, is aimed at a specific target and is somewhat relevant to current events.
Letters	Letters editors, [email protected]	You are answering something the Times already published.
Newsroom story ideas	Reporters and editors, via the Newsroom contact page the Help Center links	You have a story, data or access a reporter's beat needs. This is coverage you do not control.
Op-Docs	The Op-Docs team, [email protected]	You are a filmmaker with a short documentary. It is a different product from a video guest essay.

This page does not cover advertising or sponsored content from the Times. Those are paid products, not coverage, and should never be counted as earned.

What the Machine Relations Index shows about the Times

The Index release of November 7, 2026 (window May 10 to November 7, 2026) records nytimes.com as a cited source in 385 of 37,140 monitored answer runs (1.04%), on 59 of 175 collection days, ranked #7 of 1,358 classified editorial publications. The split by engine is the finding:

Engine	Runs citing nytimes.com	Engine's observed runs	Rate
Perplexity	351	8,889	3.95%
Google AI Mode	21	2,142	0.98%
Google AI Overviews	13	1,317	0.99%
ChatGPT	0	8,770	0.00%
Claude	0	8,809	0.00%
Gemini	0	7,213	0.00%

Method note. Figures are read from the nytimes.com profile in the November 7, 2026 Machine Relations Index release. An engine's rate is its cited runs over every monitored run that engine answered in the window, so compare rates, not counts. The Index flags Gemini as quiet in this release. That is a low recent-citation signal, not a failed collection: Gemini's runs in the 7 November batch were all collected and read. Its zero is therefore a count of what was observed, not proof that Gemini never cites the Times. The Index reports the cited domain, not the page, so it cannot say whether an engine cited reporting, a guest essay or a product review, and it does not say why an engine did or did not cite the Times. Re-query the profile and the public JSON artifact.

The category pattern points the same way. The Times's 28 published segments fall in eight categories: Consumer Finance, Consumer Health, Consumer Products, Emergent Prosumer, Family Software, Physical Consumer Products, iGaming and Betting, and news-driven questions. Its strongest are Physical Consumer Products top lists (23 of 125 runs, 18.40%, #2 of 259) and Family Software best-tools questions (43 of 236, 18.22%, #7 of 222). None of its published segments is in a B2B category. The earlier October 20, 2026 release, analysed in Do AI Engines Cite WSJ, NYT and Bloomberg?, counted nytimes.com in none of 14,928 runs across the 14 B2B categories, against 309 for forbes.com.

What to do with that

Match the outlet to the job. If the goal is to put a defensible argument in front of executives, policymakers and the press, a Times guest essay is a respected credibility signal, and that value does not depend on an AI engine. If the goal is to be named when a buyer asks an AI engine which vendor to shortlist, the Index points to different sources: read your category on the Index category pages to see which sources engines cite, then judge each outlet on audience fit, editorial fit and the evidence behind it before you pay for anything. How often a source is cited does not show that a placement there is worth buying. The comparison with The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Forbes follows the same logic.

Treat a placement as one measurable unit among several. Separate whether the essay ran, whether the Times host was cited in your target buyer questions on the engines you declared, whether the exact essay URL was cited, whether your brand was named or recommended, and whether any AI referral session or qualified conversion followed. A placement can move one of these without moving the next, and none of them is guaranteed by a byline.

How AuthorityTech approaches a Times goal

AuthorityTech is The World's First Machine Relations Agency, and it has an interest in how this page reads: it sells earned-media programs. For a Times goal, the work is to find the argument the client has standing to make, choose the door that fits it (guest essay, video guest essay, Letters or a newsroom story), prepare the source file the Times will ask for, and then measure whether the engines the client's buyers use repeat the result. Programs are priced per placement, with the escrowed placement fee refunded in full if AuthorityTech fails to deliver the agreed placement, subject to the SOW's exclusions. No agency can make the Times publish an essay, and no placement should be sold as a guaranteed AI citation, referral, conversion or revenue event.

See how AuthorityTech scopes earned media and Machine Relations measurement →

FAQ

How do I submit an op-ed to the New York Times?

Use the Opinion guest essay form linked from the Times Help Center. Explain the professional or personal background that connects you to the argument, and include sources for key assertions as hyperlinks in the text or in parentheses. The Times says it reviews every submission but may not reply to everyone.

How long should a New York Times guest essay be?

The Times says typically 800 to 1,200 words, though it sometimes publishes shorter or longer essays.

Are op-eds and guest essays the same thing at the Times?

Yes. The Help Center says Opinion guest essays were known as Op-Eds because they appeared in print opposite the editorial page. The video version was formerly known as the video Op-Ed.

Can I send the same essay to the Times and another outlet?

No. The Times requires an essay to be original and exclusive, meaning it cannot have appeared elsewhere in any form, in print or online. The Help Center says that if you do not hear from the Times within three business days you may submit the work elsewhere.

Will AI engines cite a New York Times placement?

Sometimes, depending on the engine and the question. In the Machine Relations Index release of November 7, 2026, nytimes.com was cited in 385 of 37,140 monitored answer runs, 351 of them by Perplexity, and in none of the observed ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini runs. The Index measures the cited domain, not whether a particular essay would be cited.

Should a B2B company pursue the New York Times for AI visibility?

Pursue it for reach and credibility if you have an argument the Times would publish. For B2B answer engines, the Index shows none of the Times's published segments in a B2B category, so check your category's leaderboard before you count a Times essay toward AI visibility.