Maxine Builder is the deputy editorial director at Wirecutter, the product recommendation service at The New York Times, where she leads the site’s short-form content strategy. That includes launching editorial series that fuel audience growth, experimenting with new storytelling formats, building scalable newsroom workflows, and packaging stories to create moments that matter, both on- and off-platform.

From 2021 to 2024, Maxine led The Strategist, New York Magazine’s product review website. In that role, she developed columns and editorial franchises, expanded into new areas of coverage, and launched newsletters (including Secret Strategist and The Strategist Beauty Brief)—all while ensuring a crisp voice and tone. Under her leadership, The Strategist was named Hottest in E-commerce on Adweek’s Hot List, which noted, “Clever, stylish and with just a touch of lip, The Strategist has elevated the tedious world of product recommendations into high art.”

As a writer, Maxine has interviewed countless celebrities about their favorite things; tested kitchen gear, beauty hacks, and tech gadgets; and wrote the definitive oral history of Four Loko. She’s a service journalist at heart, and in 2021, she received an ASME Next Award, which honors outstanding achievement by magazine journalists under the age of 30.

With sharp storytelling instincts, a strategic mindset, and a keen eye for trends, Maxine is an expert at balancing editorial ambition with business goals. She knows how to create content strategies that work for audiences, editorial teams, and bottom lines, and she thrives on helping creative teams do their best, most ambitious work.

Selected Work

Editing | Wirecutter | 2025

Is Quince stuff the best? Most of the time, no. But is this stuff pretty good? Often, yes. And sometimes “good enough” is enough.

Story by Annemarie Conte. Visuals by Marki Williams and Dana Davis.

Editing | Wirecutter | 2025

Tasked with developing a editorial feature package on the theme of secondhand shopping, we conceived of a challenge. We gave our writers a tight budget and a shopping list of three items that must sourced on the secondhand market. We asked each of them to document their experiences shopping for home décor, style, and tableware, both online and in-person, and we distilled the best advice from their journeys into a cohesive trio of stories.

Story by Alexander Aciman and Frances Solá-Santiago. Photos by Michael Murtaugh.

Special Projects | The Strategist | 2024

I curated a collection of Yamazaki Home products beloved by Strategist readers and editors for a limited-edition collaboration. We selected a charming forest-green for the steel, with the goal of offering versatile storage solutions for small spaces.

Writing | The Strategist | 2023

Tidal pools, secluded beaches, and sunrise treks. I documented my honeymoon to South Africa as part of the Strategist's recurring travel column Steal My Vacation.

Editing, Newsletter | The Strategist | 2023

I developed and launched this weekly newsletter to showcase the Strategist's beauty editors' personalities, create space for more timely content about trending products, and connect with our most loyal, beauty-obsessed readers. Our debut issue in October 2023 — a review of Hailey Bieber's Rhode lip treatment, with the subject line "Why Can't I Beliebe in Rhode?" — had a 78.1% open rate. Within four months, the newsletter grew to over 22,000 subscribers.

Special Projects | The Strategist | 2023

I conceptualized the Gift Scout, an AI-powered tool that helps users find gift recommendations from the Strategist's product database. In partnership with Vox Media's product team, we evolved the concept into a sophisticated tool where users could input recipient details, interests, and price range to receive tailored recommendations. I collaborated with the product team on testing and refinement, and with communications on positioning strategy and branding.

Editing | The Strategist | 2023

Tasked with building an editorial feature package around the theme of items that are "worth it," we developed the idea of asking notable people to share the one item that they splurged on when they made it big. Responses ranged from Bethenny Frankel's Christian Louboutin handbag and Ottessa Moshfegh's Celtics tickets for her dad, to Taffy Brodesser-Akner's daily contacts.

Special Projects | The Strategist | 2022

Wright's Media approached the Strategist to develop a badging program. I collaborated with Vox Media's licensing team to create three franchises — The Strategist 100, Best in Class, and This Thing’s Incredible — and wrote the methodology for awarding each of these badges. I worked with design to create the badges themselves, making sure that they felt true to the brand and would look organic on the site and in our content. I partnered with product to make sure we had on-site templates that would allow the badges to be featured at the top of articles, demonstrating the value of the accolade to potential buyers and our own readers. In the first year of our program, the Strategist sold 15 badges to brands, including Yamazaki Home, Morrow Soft Goods, ReMarkable, and Alex Mill.

Writing | New York Magazine | 2020

New York’s annual “Reasons to Love New York” issue in December 2020 was a celebration of the go-tos that had closed since the COVID pandemic struck. I said good-bye to Mermaid Inn in Manhattan's East Village.

Writing | Grub Street | 2018

“It almost felt like liquid hyperbole. It was fucking insane on every level.” I wrote about the rise and fall of Four Loko, as told by the people who lived it (or at least, the parts of it that they remember) — including the brand's founders.

PRESS