Magazine publisher Condé Nast is hiring a new vice president to run its emerging products group — Arlie Sisson, who’s joining from Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
Sisson led Starwood’s strategy for native apps on mobile, and before that, worked at mobile startup Silver Chalice New Media.
Fred Santarpia, who became Condé’s chief digital officer last fall, told me that the emerging products group is itself a new creation. Condé’s various titles (including The New Yorker, Wired, and Vogue) have their own digital teams, but Santarpia suggested that they’re “very much focused on running their day-to-day businesses.”
Sisson’s team, on the other hand, will be “singularly focused on innovating for the company’s future.” For now, at least, that means experimenting with different kinds of mobile apps.
“We’re looking at how fragmented the media landscape is, the many different platforms that our content can find a home on and many different form factors,” Santarpia added. “Who knows what’s next? Maybe what’s next is virtual reality — I don’t know the answers, but I do know that really smart people at Condé Nast are thinking about the marketplace and how to position our brands.”
Sisson is scheduled to start work on May 4.
“The momentum and growth in the digital landscape is unlimited and connecting people to products is more important than ever before,” she said in the hiring release. “Joining the incredible talent at Condé Nast gives me the opportunity to work with its extraordinary brands to engage more audiences in more dynamic ways on more digital and mobile platforms.”
