Actually Darren, the circulation of travel magazines is booming… well, relatively. The total market for travel magazines in the UK has grown by over 40% over the past two years.So much so, that National Geographic Traveller is launching over here in December. Meanwhile, in the US, Travel and Leisure Magazine claims it has had double digit growth in the past six months. New US title Afar is claiming a 75k circulation within a year, and are on target to hit a three figure circulation by January.
It’s not a surprise really. As a media analyst said in a presentation at the World Adventure Travel Summit last week, “People surf the net, but swim in magazines.”

Where magazines are hurting is on advertising. Wanderlust’s fell by 50% some 18 months ago. We never discount at all, so it is very transparent how we are doing. All the magazines have been hit on that side, some much more badly than us. It is very frustrating when the mags are being read more than ever, and are one of the biggest influencers on travel decisions.

So, while the financial model is tough at the moment, at least the appetite for printed magazines is still very much there. All in all, we at Wanderlust are confident that travel magazines are going to be very much around for a while yet. Indeed, i predict the sector will boom still further in the short to medium term.

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There will always be a future for magazines — and especially travel magazines given their unique ability to offer beautiful photography and lengthy eyewitness pieces. The internet will remain an invaluable tool for information with increasing numbers depending on it for news and easily accessible content.

But I think many people still see real value in a physical product with high-quality design, photography and writing. When was the last time you read more than 400 words on your iPhone, laptop or even desktop? Can you really appreciate photography on something no bigger than your palm?

There’s little doubt that publishers need a digital strategy and ignoring multimedia platforms is a costly mistake. Conde Nast’s Nicholas Coleridge recently said that up to 40% of its sales would come from products such as the iPad. But even then it requires expensive outlay on a product too big for your pocket.

Recent years have proved difficult for the publishing industry with advertising revenues usually the first to fall during a recession. They are, however, often the first to come back and magazine closures, like any business, are due to reasons more than poor sales or falling revenue.

Lonely Planet Magazine and Sunday Times Travel Magazine both saw sales increase in the first half of 2010 while Conde Nast Traveller only dropped by 0.6%. And while travel is a crowded market but there’s always room for a new magazine — hence the launch of National Geographic Traveller in the UK this December.

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I don’t think travel magazines are going to die, as such. They’re certainly going to change – the survivors, that is. The magazines that are booming are actively using technology to get people interested in the print copies. Lyn cited National Geographic and Wanderlust there – two publications that have a hefty and meaningful social media presence. They’re not fighting or being stabbed in the back by technology, they’re using it, with great success.

I don’t much like “x is going to kill y” arguments, because they always fail to see what’s between x and y, the compromises and the mixes that will make it work in the long run. The media may change (I don’t think that’s a guarantee, though – we still love our books and magazines too much to completely ditch them). But magazines as published entities, albeit in a very different form and working along a different business model, won’t be going away, even in the long run. That’s my gut feeling. (And my hope, being a freelance writer!).

One question is…what happens when “i-paper” becomes affordable and cheap? Instead of a print magazine, you pick up something that looks like one of those A4 plastic sleeves students use, except it’s biodegradable and filled with some kind of LCD liquid. It has a chip on the back with the magazine in its memory. Press a button and there you have it, to read on the bus. Magazines, v2.0. Sounds fanciful, but IBM are already tinkering with E-Paper technology, try to make it commercially viable…

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I like posts like this, it always gets travel writers and publishers frantically looking for stats.

On the whole I agree with Darren. The only reason I would buy a travel magazine these days is if I were frantically bored with no electricity.

They look great on an embassy table, doctors waiting room, and a coffee table. Nat Geo do publish some good content. But, many others are simply giant content recycle machines.

Eye candy and corporate sales will ensure such magazines continue to be printed. But, rest assured they are investing heavily in online applications. Like it or not that is where the future is.

Dito for guidebooks. And, I am a fan of paper here. But as I wrote here the writing is on the wall for guide books too.

Rupert Murdoch keeps putting a spin on paper vs internet, but the reality is already here. And, we are moving forward.

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Wonderfully provocative headline as always eh Darren…

[maybe print publishers could learn a thing from you ] And inevitably there will probably be a lot of writers that chime in on this discussion!

Anyway………

In the same way that there is still a (admittedly shrinking) part to play for travel agents, there will be for the foreseeable future be a role for physical magazines.

HOWEVER. I think the role magazines play will change.

Almost every study on the topic in recent years has shown that mags and papers are not seen as a significant source of research or inspiration for consumers (the majority preferring the web or friends and family – that incl social networks – as a starting point).

So whereas previously mags were full of flowery and whimsical descriptions of a destination (often penned by a writer on a press trip funded by an advertiser), perhaps we will see a more practical approach by mags – offering advice and tips post-booking.

[NB: Not intentionally mocking the writing - it's actually a fine skill. I just can't do it!!]

So it’s an interesting time for mags. They (or some of them) will survive, but hopefully not in the same style.

At the moment they seem to be offering decreasingly less value to advertisers simply because they are pitched in at the wrong part of the travel purchase funnel.

I am presuming your article is about B2C mags? B2B is a different discussion entirely, eh Pat

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As an advertiser I no longer spend in travel mags because the ROI was so low. It just doesn’t compete with the internet. Travel magazines, like travel agents brochures, tend to be a spring board for a user to then go onto the internet and search for what they’ve just seen in a mag.

Personally I think that travel magazines only appeal to a certain age group. I’d guess that 18-35 age group would be one of the lowest subscribers – which is worrying because they are the disposable incomes of the future! their search and purchase habits are already mostly technology driven.

To say that “technology is killing magazines” is a comment that’s been sloshing around the industry for the last 4-5 years but the mags just refuse to die. Like zombies they still roam the shelves of WHSmiths giving away James Blunt CD’s free with every issue.

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I was commenting with my ‘new launch’ hat on Kevin

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@darren – in B2C, sales and circulation are pretty much the same thing. It’s different in B2B where thousands of copies are sent to people (known as controlled circulation) because the publisher presumes they want/need it.

Nevertheless, magazines always used to talk about the pass-on factor (i.e. a single mag might be read by 4 people, for example), but advertisers soon caught on to that wheeze (completely unmeasurable) and it’s far less used nowadays.

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I have to admit that the travel magazine section at my local Borders is getting a bit thin. And that saddens me. I love technology and love all the travel blogs that are out there. However, I really really look forward to reading Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine every month. There’s nothing like having it in your hand and reading. The same goes for a book or a newspaper as well.

Most of our information comes online now. But there is something, I don’t know what it is, that connects more in the brain when you can hold it and read it. It’s a combination of the physical object and the mental stimulation that seems to create more synapses in the brain and makes it a bit more fulfilling than just reading it online. You can get the same information but I think there is a deeper connection/value that comes from reading magazines, newspapers, and books in your hand. As much as I love technology, I will never own a kindle.

Why this is going a bit beyond your rant, I think the same truth can be extended to relationships. So many of us connect on Twitter but there is something about real relationships – facial expressions, chemistry, connection, physical touch, mind’s ability to process physiological, physical, words all in one – that makes it impossible for technology to ever replace.

I believe the same is true of books.

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Great discussion here, with fantastic points by Jeremy, Darren, Lyn, and Pat.

I agree that it’s the advertising sales model that’s broken (and Karl suggests some reasons for that), not sales. Readers are buying print travel magazines in the US as much as ever. But despite the “expensive” price Darren mentions, the subscription price doesn’t cover the costs of production. Paper, printing, and postage/shipping are far more expensive processes than most people realize, and the costs have been getting worse.

I agree with Darren that travel mags should focus on more post-booking advice. Readers would be more in “buying/deciding” mode rather than inspiration mode, and that’s friendlier for advertisers. Mags need to run fewer feature stories that begin “Osaka is a city of contrasts…” But then need to run more, splashier photos, like Afar and Lonely Planet do. Lush photography is a comparative advantage in print versus digital, at least in the near term, and it dovetails nicely with camera equipment reviews and advertising.

I often think the last print magazine standing will be a bridal magazine. There’s no substitute for a young woman sharing photos with her mother about the best dress to buy, etc. But travel is a close second. Print travel magazines will still be selling a decade from now, but they’ll be very different, there will be far fewer of them, and they may not be profitable in and of themselves.

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I have not bought a travel magazine or book in years. If I want to find something out then I will just surf the net. Having said that i would like to book a hard back book. I miss books, but not magazine. you are right, full of advertisements.

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Darren I too seldom buy a travel magazine even though I am probably the prime target customer. When I pick them up to look through, I am disappointed at the wealth of full page glossy photographs, the mass of user generated content and the whole aspirational slant as opposed to the serious, informed insider knowledge and I usually replace the mag on the shelf.

I’m sure there’s a market out there for an intelligently written paper-based magazine with a healthy balance of reportage and reviews, inspiration and insight. CN Traveller sometimes delivers but after a while tends towards the same-old same-old.
I’ll look forward to seeing the new NGT on the shelves and hope it fits the bill!

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I’m not surprised by the decline in travel magazines. For me, travelling the past 10 years, I’ve always went online primarily for information for the key reason that information online is current and up to date (most of the time), and in an ever changing market where new hotels spring up, new offers are advertised online, the magazine is not the best place to advertise it saddled with price of the magazine £3-6…that’s the cost of insurance for travelling round Europe (if you shop around that is)

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Interesting viewpoints so far!

While I don’t remember when I last bought a travel magazine, I often read them in the library (for free, obviously). When it comes to international mags I usually read online, but like Jeremy B said about holding a magazine as you read, it’s a different feeling that can’t be compared to reading an article online.

On another note, feels like I haven’t visited your blog in ages! When did you get a new design?

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So true, I have gone to buy some travel magazines lately and the cost is ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that magazine sales are booming as Lyn said, but good for them if they are. I prefer to check out blogs on my iphone or laptop. It’s cheaper and more immediate.

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Like the new design. I haven’t bought a travel mag for ages and I think a combo of the price and the adverts trun me off. I suspect such specialist magazines are going to struggle to continue.

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My coffee table is covered with travel mags and books. And when I head out to the backyard to swing in the hammock on a sunny afternoon because I am speciously employed (what DO I do, anyway?) I take magazines and books with me.

I think the premise isn’t quite right here, Darren, though you are a master of conversation openers. Technology isn’t killing the magazine. Technology is making the magazine change form. The magazine concept still exists, it’s just delivered in a not-print medium more often than not. Technology is eating print for lunch, not travel mags exclusively.

Matador is really a magazine, it’s just online. World Hum, too, I think. Perceptive Travel publishes a magazine, it’s online ONLY. And and and and and.

I would be sad to lose print entirely, because I enjoy it. I enjoy turning pages, I enjoy shiny photos, and I enjoy the inspiration kind of stories that previous commenters are suggesting might be better replaced with service content. But I’m old, and there’s a whole generation of readers who will grow up with nothing but online — magazines or otherwise.

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I’m great, thanks. Hope you’re well too! Looking forward to see the new header!

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I subscribe to lots of magazines, including travel magazines. It’s usually much better value for money than purchasing them individually.

It’s very addictive to be attached to a screen but I certainly don’t get the same pleasure out of it as I do a book or magazine.

I love the format and I really hope they don’t die.

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You can measure ROI with print. It’s not as immediate as online but they do all sorts of research to show whether or not advertising works in other media. The most effective ad campaigns are actually cross-media. Also, a lot of luxury brands won’t advertise online or on outdoor posters/billboards because the consumer perception is that it makes them look cheap.

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There are two types of “sales”. Ad sales, which Lyn says isn’t booming. And copy sales, which is the same thing as circulation (except for free magazines). I think you are thinking of the print run, which is usually a bit bigger than the circulation.

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In the UK, magazine circulation is usually audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. They have to prove that the copies actually made it into the hands of consumers. They also have to break out any free or discounted copies and list that separately to the full-price copies.

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Like many of the other respondents, I rarely look at travel magazines. But it’s not because I’ve got access to the web – it’s because the content is usually bloody boring and largely irrelevent to me. I’m gone on about it before, but when hotels costing £150 a night are regarded as ‘budget’, then these mags are clearly aimed at luring in Rolex adverts rather than aiding the reader.

Point two: Most travel writing is horrendously worthy and po-faced. Often the requirement to entertain as well as inform is lost in the rush to make everything sound authoritative. Same applies to newspaper travel sections.

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I rarely look through travel magazines, to be honest I don’t really see the point! As it has been pointed out most pages are of advertisements, and most articles are irrelevant to me. I’d much rather use technology to find exactly what I am interested in

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It is a true fact that travel magazines are loosing their charm due to technology entering our lives day by day. people now prefer to log on to internet rather than buy a magazine to collect information about traveling.

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It’s true, I had also meet with the same results on buying some of travel magazines, there costs are very high and in comparisons to travel blogs, they are absurd and wastage of your hardcore money.

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It’s hard to pick up a travel magazine or book when most content on the internet is free. But this will be a good trend. It will force magazines and books to special and provide content that readers need.

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