When the Good Food Guide launched 45 years ago, the “hot dish” of the year was a seafood sausage with cream and green peppercorn sauce. Audience tastes have changed, and, as publishers well know, so have their media consumption habits.

But what was clear even then was that readers — now readers, watchers, and listeners — wanted more than just news from our metropolitan mastheads, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. We know our audiences want a breadth of engaging and inspiring content that also informs.

As I wrote in 2023, Good Food existed for some years as a standalone Web site in a bid to maximise reach and advertising revenue. The shift to prioritising subscriptions led to GoodFood, along with our Traveller sub-brand, being reintegrated into the mastheads given the value they offered as part of a subscription bundle.

Recently we shared how our enhanced puzzle offering has driven engagement and added value to our premium subscription bundle, the highest tier of our subscription packages. The Good Food app now also aims to entice subscribers to upgrade and attract new audiences.

Serving up a new audience opportunity

Good Food is recognised as Australia’s authority on restaurant reviews, culminating annually with the release of the prestigious Good Food Guide in Melbourne and Sydney and its much-coveted “hats” — a local equivalent to the Michelin stars.

Good Food also offers an extensive collection of more than 10,000 recipes from Australia’s top chefs, curated best-of lists, tips, and the latest news on the dining scene.

Good Food had long offered digital access to many of its reviews and recipes, but the iconic guide itself had never been digitised. It was a strategic opportunity to offer audiences a fresh product from a proven legacy brand.

Our research showed that, while Good Food was loved among our existing audience, there was a chance to widen our appeal to new, younger audiences looking for foodie content: About 75% of Australians aged 18 and older actively search, read, watch, or listen to recipes and reviews on a monthly basis.

The Good Food app became a key project across our product, editorial, and audience teams.

The app is available either with a premium digital subscription or a standalone Good Food subscription, which allows a user to access the app and Good Food content on our mastheads’ Web sites. Regular digital subscribers have access to Web Good Food content but not to app-only features including:

• The interactive Good Food Guide: For the first time, users can browse our guide in an interactive digital format. It includes more than 900 reviews and allows users to filter results by price, cuisine types, suburbs, and dietary requirements.
• A dynamic map view: The app features an interactive map that plots all venues reviewed by Good Food. Whether you’re in the heart of the city or exploring a new suburb, the location-based “nearby” function helps you discover top-rated cafes, restaurants, and bars.

The Good Food app’s features are continually being enhanced and updated. As an example, saved lists have recently become available and AI-powered personalisation tools are in development.

Early success

The app launched alongside the 2024 Good Food Guide in November. Already more than 20% of Good Food pageviews originate from the app. Subscriber engagement has increased — pageviews are up 70% year on year in January — and the app has driven a noticeable upsell to premium packages.

A marketing campaign for the app will roll out in May aiming to extend this success to a wider audience. The Good Food app has taken a much-loved print legacy product and transformed it into a dynamic digital companion with a hunger for audience growth.

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