Hearst Magazines recently announced that it would be opening The App Lab at its New York headquarters to offer educational sessions and testing of its mobile content and applications. For the company’s digital VP Chris Wilkes, partnering with marketers and agencies at the early stage of development was a no-brainer.

“There’s a lot of confusion in the marketplace around not just tablets, but when the consumers will come and what do they want and how should we execute it,” he said in our Media Beat interview. “And it makes a lot of sense for us to build on something that we’ve started internally and open that up to the broader audience that includes our business partners.”

Wilkes also discussed how the company is incorporating video into its apps and gave tips to print publishers looking to enter the digital market. One piece of advice: put the needs of your readers first.

Part 1: Hearst’s Chris Wilkes on Landing a Mobile or Digital Job

Part 3: Hearst’s Chris Wilkes: iPad is a ‘Gateway’ to Selling Digital Content

Chris Wilkes discusses how print brands can create applications and mobile sites that meet consumer needs at Think Mobile on September 23 in San Francisco.