News

Matador Launches 8 Million New Websites

Date: May 2nd, 2008 |

1 comment

I mean 8. Still, in the online travel website medium that’s muchissimo. This is good news for budding travel writers that want a entry level market to break in and earn enough for a few drinks. They now have 9 total sites:
MatadorTravel: Social network with blogs, photos, forums, paid travel writing.
MatadorTrips: Offers detailed destination guides [read more]

Someone Scratched My LP

Date: April 14th, 2008 |

7 comments

I don’t know if anyone has been following the news that has been creaping up all over the media the past few days, but guidebook publisher Lonely Planet has been hit by a renegade author, Thomas Kohnstamm, who is claiming that he sold drugs to compensate for his lousy authors salary, made up huge chunks [read more]

Travel Channel Acquires Vagabondish

Date: March 31st, 2008 |

3 comments

Breaking news from the travel-publishing industry: Discovery’s Travel Channel has bought over Vagabondish. First it was World Hum, now this — both are great examples of small scale, personal projects making it big because of sheer dedication and quality content.
Mike Richard, who created the blog-turned-magazine about 18-months ago, will remain the editor-in-chief and the writers [read more]

Lonely Planet Expands Pick and Mix; others following suit

Date: February 19th, 2008 |

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Is this the start of things to come? Last August we reported that Lonely Planet began offering certain chapters of their South America guides for download -that can be printed out when needed or viewed on an iPod or Palm - through their Pick & Mix concept. They’ve now expanded since then and added guides [read more]

End Of Year Travel-Writing Contest

Date: December 28th, 2007 |

8 comments

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got some time to unwind. I certainly did and am having trouble getting back into the swing of things.
On that note, here’s something for those who want to do one last productive thing before the end of 2008 (oh my goodness, 2008!!), or start the year with [read more]

The Tommy Kohnstamm Fallout

Date: April 16th, 2008 |

2 comments

Ok, so this LP thing is everywhere now. There are AP articles on the Yahoo homepage. Polls being given about the trustfullness of guidebooks. Boycotts of Do Travel Writers Go To Hell: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics & Professional Hedonism . An interview with Kohnstamm at World Hum (which I have to [read more]

Wend Magazine Goes Digital; free issue

Date: April 11th, 2008 |

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Wend Magazine, an Oregon based adventure sports print magazine has recently launched a digital version. Not only that they are giving away the first issue free. They still have the print version if you prefer, but actually a digital subscription is almost hal [read more]

NYC & Italy Travel Writing Classes w/Michael Luongo

Date: February 27th, 2008 |

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Travel Writer and Editor Michael Luongo, who we interviewed at Written Road last April, will be holding several travel writing workshops in the coming months:
New York University’s Global Traveler Writing Class
When: Saturdays March 8 and March 15, 10am to 4pm
Where: New York University
How Much: $385
Luongo’s Global Traveler writing class is aimed at those wanting [read more]

Matador Travel Merges With Brave New Traveler

Date: February 1st, 2008 |

3 comments

Check out my post on Gadling as to why I’m thrilled about this merger! Ian Mackenzie and Tim Patterson from BNT have joined Matdor’s editorial team and I’m really looking forward to seeing more great content.
Also, mergers means expansions, which for us translates into more paid writing opportunities at Matador! They did a great job [read more]

Want To Be The Next Great Travel-Writer?

Date: October 30th, 2007 |

1 comment

Well, here’s an opportunity.
Travcoa (a luxury and exotic travel company) and National Geographic Traveler have launched a competition in search of “The Next Great Travel Writer”.
So if you are a student in North America, send in a 300-word-essay of a travel story that moved, excited or changed you and you could be on your [read more]