Holiday and travel magazines

Absolute Publishing Ltd To top

Contract publisher that specialises in travel and sports magazines:

• Abta Magazine, a monthly trade magazine for ABTA, the Travel Association. Has a readership of 35,000. Spin-offs include supplements on regions of the world, an annual golf publication and the ABTA Members' Handbook.
• ASTAnetwork, a quarterly trade magazine for the American Society of Travel Agents
• Welcome to London, a quarterly listings guide
• Spa Secrets, a quarterly consumer luxury spa, travel and lifestyle magazine
• Classic Sports series: annual titles focused on sporting events including Euro 2008, Champion's League, The Open, Ryder Cup and Best of British.

Absolute tried to launch a bi-monthly consumer magazine called ABTA Travelspirit in winter 2002, with hopes of the 80,000 run becoming a monthly. Contact: Absolute Publishing Ltd, 197-199 City Road, London EC1V 1JN. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 9909

Anthem Publishing Ltd To top

Bath-based publisher has four magazines about Italy: 

• Italia! for people who holiday there, who own or wish to purchase homes there and for those with a passion for the country’s people, culture, food and drink. Published on the first Thursday of every month; launched in November 2004
• Taste Italia: recipes and features on Italian produce and producers; also reviews of wine and restaurants. Published on the first Thursday of the month; launched November 2006
• Italia! Guide series collates articles from other titles for a particular region or city
• Taste Italia: each issue carries recipes for seasonal, regional and other specialities of Italian cooking. The first issue was about pasta
• Calcio Italia - no longer published. Carried match reports on both Serie A and B. Title acquired by Anthem in 2004 (launched in 1992). Was available internationally and published under licence in Canada as Soccer Italia.

Archant Life Ltd Back to top

• France a 'monthly English-language review of la vie française'. France magazine has North American and UK editions 
• Living France monthly guide to owning French holiday homes and property 

BBC Magazines (see Immediate Media) To top

The BBC had a mixed history of trying to publish magazines related to its travel programmes, with two early failures. Its latest attempt, Lonely Planet, triggered controversy in 2008. In 2011, BBC Magazines was taken over by Immediate Media.

• BBC Holiday 89. This was one of the first branded titles by the BBC from its Redwood Publishing arm. It was a rare early failure from Redwood.
• BBC Holidays. Launched in 1992 by BBC/Redwood, it was closed despite a relaunch in 1995. Two factors in its failure were that newsagent's had no specific place to put it and sales varied greatly across the year.
• Lonely Planet was launched on 28 November 2008 (December cover date). The title was aimed at frequent travellers and edited by Peter Grunert who was deputy editor at Top Gear. A year earlier, BBC Worldwide had taken control of the Lonely Planet travel guide publisher, which sells 6.5 million guidebooks a year. The move caused uproar at both Time Out - where founder Tony Elliott led the fight in the late 1980s that led to the breaking of the duopoly of TV Times and the BBC’s Radio Times over television listings - and Wanderlust, which both argued that the publicly funded BBC was distorting the marketplace with its commercial spin-offs. Wanderlust complained, unsuccessfully, to the Office of Fair Trading about the BBC’s launch - which was to have coincided with Wanderlust’s 100th issue, but the BBC put it back a week.
  Digital sample

Brooklands Group (closed) Back to top

• A Place in the Sun is the official Channel 4 magazine launched in March 2004. It publishes 13 issues a year. A Place in the Sun markets itself as the UK's best-selling overseas property magazine, covering international property news, real-life stories, inspirational holiday homes, special reports, property related advice and competitions. Bound-in buyers' guide supplements are a regular feature.

In 2001, the franchise was split into three magazines, but this strategy was reversed by 2006:

• A Place in the Sun's Everything Spain was published 13 times a year, reflecting the fact that the British buy more property in Spain than anywhere else. 
• A Place in the Sun's Everything France was published 13 times a year. It was launched in the summer of 2001. 
• A Place in the Sun's Everything America covered the continent six times a year. 

Website was at http://www.brooklandsgroup.com/

Cedar Communications Ltd Top

Condé Nast Publications Ltd Top

Condé Nast Traveller is a consumer magazine that aims to shrug off the poor reputation of much travel journalism. Condé Nast Traveler was founded in 1986 at US publisher Condé Nast by former Sunday Times and Times editor Harry Evans. He set Traveler out to be dedicated to ‘truth in travel’. Condé Nast Traveller was launched in the UK in 1997 by editor Sarah Miller. The strategy has been a success with the title establishing travel as a sector in newsagents (BBC Worldwide had failed with BBC Holidays magazine).

Condé Nast Traveller pays for all its own flights and accommodation and has never 'knowingly' published something that is the result of a group press trip. Miller told a Guardian interviewer: '[A press trip] is uniform and controlled by the PR company,' she says. 'Travel isn't a controlled experience. It is what happens to you.’

Condé Nast Traveler has a policy of not accepting free trips, to ensure editorial independence. Contact: The Conde Nast Publishing Limited, Vogue House, Hanover Square, London W1S 1JU. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7499 9080 
Condé Nast profile

Green Pea Publishing Ltd Top

Illustrated London News Group Top

• Interval published quarterly for Interval International, a timeshare exchange company 
• Livewire is a bi-monthly title for the Great North Eastern Railway, distributed free on trains between London and Scotland. 
• Orient-Express Magazine is free to travellers between Singapore and Bangkok on the Eastern & Oriental Express. There is also an Orient Express Hotels magazine.

Immediate Media (took over BBC Magazines) To top

Immediate Media was formed from the businesses of BBC Magazines, Origin Publishing and Magicalia in 2011. The BBC's launch of Lonely Planet in 2008 triggered controversy with accusations of abusing its position in the market from other publishers. 

• BBC Holiday 89. This was one of the first branded titles by the BBC from its Redwood Publishing arm. It was a rare early failure from Redwood.
• BBC Holidays. Launched in 1992 by BBC/Redwood, it was closed despite a relaunch in 1995. Two factors in its failure were that newsagent's had no specific place to put it and sales varied greatly across the year.
• Lonely Planet was launched on 28 November 2008 (December cover date). The title was aimed at frequent travellers and edited by Peter Grunert who was deputy editor at Top Gear. A year earlier, BBC Worldwide had taken control of the Lonely Planet travel guide publisher, which sells 6.5 million guidebooks a year. The move caused uproar at both Time Out - where founder Tony Elliott led the fight in the late 1980s that led to the breaking of the duopoly of TV Times and the BBC’s Radio Times over television listings - and Wanderlust, which both argued that the publicly funded BBC was distorting the marketplace with its commercial spin-offs. Wanderlust complained, unsuccessfully, to the Office of Fair Trading about the BBC’s launch - which was to have coincided with Wanderlust’s 100th issue, but the BBC put it back a week.

Merricks Media Back to top

Merricks Media was founded in 1998. It publishes magazines on travel and property and women’s lifestyle. The travel magazines cover property and lifestyle:

• Australia & New Zealand Magazine monthly launched in 2005
• Florida Magazine bi-monthly launched in 2005
• French Magazine monthly launched in 2002
• Greece Magazine comes out 10 times a year
• The Italian Magazine 6 times year; launched in 2004
• Portugal Magazine published 10 times a year since 2003
• Spanish Homes Magazine monthly since 2003

Also publishes Brand New You, a monthly launched as an 'anti-ageing bible' in May 2007. Website was: http://www.merricksmedia.co.uk/. Contact: Merricks Media, Units 3 & 4, Riverside Court, Lower Bristol Road, Bath BA2 3DZ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1225 786 800

myholidayideas.com Back to top

TVTimes, IPC's weekly TV listings title, launched this travel website on 1 December 2006 to complement the magazine’s travel classified pages. It was edited by the magazine's deputy editor, Alison Gardner, and covers:

• ideas for UK and overseas holidays;
• information on buying second homes or moving overseas;
• travel tips from celebrities.

There was also a newsletter offering ideas and news from TV travel shows.

TVTimes promoted the site in a 10-week campaign to win a holiday across 90 IPC magazines and websites.
IPC profile

Panacea Publishing Top

Business Traveller is the founding title for this publisher (formerly Perry Publishing), having grown to become the leading magazine for frequent business travellers since its launch in 1976. There are 10 issues a year. There are 10 regional editions, for the UK, US (1988), Asia-Pacific, China, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Hungary the Middle East and Africa. The website was developed in 2000 when the Daily Mail group's Euromoney owned 95% of Perry Publications, publishers of Business Traveller.

In 1983, Business Traveller went into receivership but was bought out by Geoffrey Perry's Perry Publications. Two years later, it used adverts on Channel Four and Thames featuring David Frost to sell subscriptions. Links established with Germany enabled Perry to launch car magazines in the 1990s, by which time the company's managing director was Nick Perry.

An article in FT Weekend magazine by Lesley Chamberlain described how Geoffrey Perry, who founded Business Traveller, 'shot and captured Britain's most famous wartime traitor William Joyce [Lord Haw-Haw], enabling him to be brought to trial' (28 February 2004 p22). Perry told the story in his book When Life Became History.

Other related titles include:

• Buying Business Travel with 41,000 readers
• Mix focuses on holding meetings in Asia
• ABTN website for business travel. Electronic newsletter sent weekly to 28,000 subscribers
• Seatplans.com launched in September 2008 to provide advice and information on airlines and their aircraft and help travellers find the best seat

Poundbury Publishing Ltd Top

RCI Publishing Back to top

River Publishing Back to top

Romsey Publishing Ltd Back to top

TLM Media Top

Tower Business Media Top

United Business Media/Daltons Top

Wanderlust Publications Top

Travel and holiday magazines (2005) Back to top