The new App Lab will open at the publisher’s New York headquarters in September and kick off with a series of “educational sessions” covering emerging mobile content, applications and platforms.

Consumer insight panels and advertiser and agency roundtables will be held to discuss matters such as new ad formats and models as well as other programming.

Hearst president David Carey said that the lab will be open to “innovators” from within the publishing firm and across the wider media industry “in order to create the smartest content, ad models and platforms that resonate with consumers today”.

Michael Clinton, Heart Magazines’ marketing and publishing director, said: “As the app landscape expands rapidly, we are all discovering new ways to engage people: it’s a new way to communicate and the possibilities are expanding every day.”

Hearst currently has 11 apps for its range of magazines and all 14 of its publications are available on the iPad through the Zinio application.