Gourmet Reheated As iPad Application

By Molly Galler

June 23rd, 2010

Back in October I wrote about Conde Nast shutting down several of its print magazines including the extremely popular foodie bible Gourmet. Yesterday Conde Nast announced they would be reviving Gourmet as an application for Apple’s iPad under the name Gourmet Live.

According to Russell Adams’ post for the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog, Conde Nast is working with Activate to launch the iPad application in the fourth quarter. Adams writes, “Though Gourmet Live is free to download, people who surpass a certain threshold of usage will be prompted to sign up for a membership.” Sounds a bit like a magazine subscription, no? Just the way you can access a magazine’s website and peruse the content for free, but they save the best content for the pages of the magazine; a reward to their loyal subscribers.

Conde Nast already has iPad applications for three of its magazines – GQ, Vanity Fair and Wired – with plans to launch apps for Glamour and The New Yorker as well. Could it be that print magazines will soon be a thing of the past? Will your beach reading now be exclusive to your mobile device?

Conde Nast’s Chief Executive Chuck Townsend isn’t exactly denying it. He told the Wall Street Journal, “The future of Conde Nast is a consumer marketing machine.” I find this statement particularly compelling. Rather than positioning Conde Nast as a publishing house, Townsend is shifting the company’s direction to focus in a more targeted manner at reaching consumers exactly where they are – on their mobile device.

Check out a preview of the Gourmet Live iPad application below:

Entry Filed under: iPad,Marketing,Video