The Wall Street Journal
Magazine publisher Hearst has plans to build thousands of highly-focused niche-topic iPhone apps in hopes of generating revenue from the growing mobile application market. According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal, the company’s LMK (short for “let me know”) division consists of five employees who churn out templated apps focused on topics such as sports teams, musicians and hobbies. Each app features aggregated content from around the Web, and so far 70 have been created and approved for sale in the iTunes store.
The move is a significant shift in approach for a publisher that is best known for magazines such as Cosmo, Esquire and Good Housekeeping. In an already crowded app publishing environment, Hearst’s strategy appears to be either sell a few each of 5,000 apps, or through sheer numbers find a few that turn into best sellers. The Journal quotes Josh Koppel of ScrollMotion, the developer who built Hearst’s Esquire app, “In a needle-in-a-haystack situation, better to be the haystack.”
>Hearst’s Smart Bet On Niche iPhone Apps (The Atlantic)
