Now, if they stopped using that crappy app that can't even do a background download and come up with a better app, that would make the redesign more complete.
They'd probably be better off really developing out their mobile web presence - after all, their articles are almost always just text. Very little native multimedia handling required.
True that background downloads are a pain, though occasionally they mysteriously work when a new New Yorker appears on Monday morning. But apart from that annoyance, I am generally pretty happy with the New Yorker app. Quickly browsing through all the cartoons is nice. I heard once that it was one of the few success stories in online journalism (i.e., users are actually paying for news content). Is this still true?
Last I knew, iOS Newsstand apps were allowed to do a special push to the app in the background—but only as often as the physical issue was released. So, it might be that they get to do a background push once a week, and aside from that, all downloads have to be started while the app is open.