“Newsweek Eyeing Sale Of Budget Travel Mag - paidContent.org” plus 1 more |
| Newsweek Eyeing Sale Of Budget Travel Mag - paidContent.org Posted: 17 Nov 2009 03:35 PM PST With times still tough for magazines and the travel category in general, Newsweek is considering unloading Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine, AdAge reports, citing unidentified sources. The magazine may either be sold whole or Newsweek may accept the taking of partial equity stakes in the travel book, which it bought about 10 years ago. AdAge's piece follows an item in New York mag this week, which reported rumors that the magazine may be shut down. Reps for Budget Travel have denied any plans to shutter the mag or layoff its staff, telling NY mag that everything is "business as usual" and that the mag is preparing its "February issue and beyond." The magazine's reps didn't address AdAge's questions about a sale, except to confirm that rumors of Budget Travels' demise are false. Given the spate of magazine shutdowns this year, it's not surprising that such rumors are spreading. Newsweek, which is a unit of the along with its Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) sibling, Slate, has done some paring this past week, as the company finds itself in the middle of a challenging Q4. In the past two weeks, in separate attempts to rein in costs, Newsweek has laid off several staffers, while Slate has folded women's content site DoubleX as a standalone online destination. In Q3, the Washington Post Co.'s magazine publishing revenues fell 33 percent to $40.2 million. As for Budget Travel, recent MIN figures show that ad pages have fallen less than some of its rivals. Between January and November, Budget Travel ad pages dropped 27 percent compared to the year before, while Conde Nast Traveler plunged 43 percent during the same period. American Express' Travel & Leisure, meanwhile, experienced a 24 percent drop in ad pages for the first 11 months of 2009. Related Stories Posted In: Media & Publishing, Magazines, Companies, Washington Post This content has passed through fivefilters.org. | |||
| Posted: 17 Nov 2009 10:29 AM PST | In troubled times for freelance journalists, a group of long-time golf and travel writers have banded together to form their own media company and a linked network of Internet sites providing well-researched, irreverent and intelligent writing about golf, travel and related subjects. Portland, Ore. (Vocus/PRWEB ) November 17, 2009 -- In troubled times for freelance journalists, a group of long-time golf and travel writers have banded together to form their own media company and a linked network of Internet sites providing well-researched, irreverent and intelligent writing about golf, travel and related subjects. In a friendly poke at sites that simply recycle press releases or are written by amateurs, theAposition.com describes its content as "great golf and travel writing by actual journalists." The term "the A position" refers to the best place a golfer can land his tee shot on a golf hole; as the brand name of the company's websites, it suggests the place readers will want to land for great golf and travel journalism. The Content The writers each publish their own websites, which include golf content as well as writing about specialty subjects--ranging from adventure travel to real estate. All their golf writing is collected at theAposition.com. The sites include articles, essays, profiles, blogs, short stories and other content and encompass the writers' best works published over many years in the industry, plus new content posted several times every week. Each writer also hosts a forum where readers can respond to stories and generate a conversation. The Business Model The company is co-managed, with Wallach, by a couple of new-media pros: Bob Senoff, who handles business operations and contributed start-up capital, and Mike Hardy, who takes care of the technical issues of building and running the sites. Senoff, a long-time Internet investor and successful venture capitalist at New Millennium Partners (with such projects as Cafepress.com, Wildtangent, Icanhascheezburger-Pet Holdings, and Shopittome.com to his credit ) adds, "We're taking some of the most successful and best-known journalists in the golf and travel fields and giving them the chance to run wild editorially--they can write what they want, at whatever length they want, publish the off-beat stories that traditional media outlets wouldn't publish because they weren't supported directly by ads, and really express their personalities. It's what great journalism is supposed to do, and I expect it to attract not only a huge following of readers, but to monetize well with advertisers." The sites will initially offer run-of-network and individual site advertising in various forms. But writers will develop, research, and publish their stories as they see fit. Golf courses, resorts, travel companies, and other potential advertisers will be given the option to advertise, rather than a quid pro quo. The parent company also intends to generate additional revenue through partnerships, content packages, associate memberships offered to qualified journalists, and through other monetization strategies. The Writers
Visit their individual sites and read them all at theAposition.com. For further info contact: Jeff Wallach Karen Moraghan ### This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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