Why Good Housekeeping’s New App Signals a Shift in Media Product Thinking
Built with Pugpig and Fueled, Hearst UK’s new Good Housekeeping Kitchen app demonstrates how publishers are turning content into daily-use tools.
Good Housekeeping, one of the UK’s most widely read lifestyle brands, has launched a new recipe app called GH Kitchen. It joins a (very) crowded media segment, but beneath the surface of its 4,000 dishes lies something more subtle: a shift in how publishers are thinking about their digital products.
Built in collaboration with the app specialist Pugpig and the NY product agency Fueled - who also work with the New York Times, TechCrunch, Politico, and WSJ - GH Kitchen is not designed to be purely a home for content. With swipeable discovery, curated recipe folders and habit-forming UX, it’s designed to be utility first and a content destination second.
Discovery by design
Liz Settle, MD of Good Housekeeping, outlines the thinking behind the app, “Recipe apps are plentiful. We didn’t set out to create the most innovative recipe app, or even the one with the most recipes but with GH Kitchen, the USP is the content itself.
“Because we triple test everything, it means the recipes always work, every time. That said, we knew it had to have a bit more personality to it than just doing the basics properly. So that was where the swiping came from.”
The swipe mechanic now familiar from dating and video apps isn’t just a gimmick. It’s designed to lower the barrier to entry and reduce friction. Users can move quickly through suggestions, save what they like, skip what they don’t, and build personalised folders easily. Instead of starting with the search bar, users start exploring recipes immediately.
Jean Kemp, Customer Director at Pugpig, adds, “Swipe-based discovery prioritises ease and momentum, which in turn encourage regular repeat use. When users already know the interaction, there’s less friction, faster discovery and a smoother path to repeat use.”
The thinking behind it
With 20,000 downloads since launch in mid-December, the app points to a key trend - rather than just replicating web content into mobile formats, apps like GH Kitchen are aiming to embed themselves into users daily lives by becoming utility tools.
“The shift from ‘content destination’ to ‘daily tool’ reflects a much broader change we’re seeing across publisher apps,” Kemp says. “Apps provide a uniquely effective way to build daily habit and as search and social become less predictable, apps allow publishers to focus on direct relationships, repeat engagements and retention.
“Any publisher with strong evergreen content, clear repeat use cases or trusted expertise already has the foundations for a more functional app experience, and can rethink about how that content is packaged as a tool rather than a feed.”
Settle adds, “GH content has always been pretty functional. Our three power pillars are product reviews, recipes, and cleaning and decluttering tips. And the fourth, which we discovered this year, is TV previews and reviews. So utility is where it’s at for GH,” adding, “it’s one reason why we’re still growing while so many others are managing decline.”
Kemp continues, “By identifying where audiences return regularly and designing experiences around those moments, the app becomes a highly effective, habit-building tool.”
For other publishers, Kemp’s message is this: If your content serves a regular, recurring purpose, it can become more than just reading material. But doing that also means designing for behaviour, not just consumption.
Monetisation model: reach or revenue?
For Hearst UK, monetisation isn’t the primary business goal, especially as the app is free to download and use, although Settle says, “There are obvious commercialisation opportunities with GHI accredited food brands and other partners, as this enhances our overall media partner proposition.”
Instead, success will be judged on app downloads and viewing data, with a clear underlying strategy of attracting readers who might otherwise have not visited Good Housekeeping. Settle adds, “For now, this is a reach and positioning play for a different type of GH woman, looking for a different relationship with our brand.”
The app is also a doorway to Good Housekeeping itself, with the GH Kitchen app tightly tied into the brand’s overall VIP membership tier - open the GH Kitchen app and there is a dedicated Members tab pushing sign-up and showcasing benefits. In short, it’s also acting as a marketing funnel.
One unanswered question is how it leaves Hearst’s other food brands, especially in the U.S. If the GH Kitchen app gains traction, will it expand the publisher’s reach, or will it start pulling attention away from existing Hearst platforms like Delish, Elle Gourmet or Food Network Magazine?
But whatever the success of the app, GH Kitchen isn’t just a recipe app; for Hearst it’s a strategic testbed. Whether it scales, monetises, or stays niche, it offers a glimpse of where editorial meets product thinking. And as more media brands search for relevance in everyday routines, it’s a direction that more and more publishers are exploring.