"The New York Times’ online puzzle offering has surpassed 400,000 paying subscribers, roughly double the number from two years ago"

BB:

While many games are computer-generated these days, Times’ puzzles are created by hand by several people. The team includes Will Shortz, the closest thing to a crossword celebrity, who has edited puzzles at the newspaper since 1993. Anyone can submit a puzzle to the Times, which gets between 70 and 80 submissions a week from the public. Last year, an 11-year-old had a puzzle accepted.