Magazine publisher Condé Nast has added to its diverse portfolio of mobile app offerings with the release of Goings On for Android and iOS, a free, ad-supported app for browsing arts and culture events from the New Yorker's weekly listings. In addition to event listings, reviews and useful maps, the app offers audio tours of stores, restaurants, neighborhoods and more by New Yorker authors.
This free app supplementing the magazine plays a similar role to Condé's GQ Style Guide. The publisher isn't just making magazine apps - it's creating an ecosystem.
The app has a strong New Yorker aesthetic, but all its interface elements are in the right place, making it an intuitive native app for a powerful brand.
Condé Nast's digital efforts had a rocky start, and digital still doesn't comprise a very large chunk of their business, but the latest numbers from the New Yorker iPad app suggest that Condé has found a winning digital formula for the news and culture magazine.
Standalone apps aren't Condé's only digital product - the New Yorker's Flipboard feed became the first-ever ad channel on the popular reading aggregator. But a separate culture guide like Goings On seems like a viable option for a magazine with such cultural cachet, and it wouldn't be surprising if other publications followed suit.