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Should publishers get into the travel industry?

As we face the awful prospect of our largest publishers merging due to a shrinking print industry, I believe we need to upend the way we think about editorial and advertising.

I have spent 17 years as a travel writer and blogger immersed in the travel vertical, to use the appropriate jargon, and it never ceases to amaze me what a missed opportunity this is for struggling publications with online audiences to capitalise on.

It seems that travel brands and destinations are still only wanting, or even expecting, exposure by way of brand awareness through written content and editors are only wanting entertainment for their readers to fill up more pages and bring in more advertising dollars. It’s a small circle with no capacity to expand and round and round we go, week after week, sales teams hustling for more advertisers and writers commissioned to write content for a pittance.

It’s time for disruption! What if you could take the reader (or viewer of travel videos) through to a page from, which they could purchase, or at the very least, sign up for emails from that brand or destination, to be kept informed of upcoming deals they might be interested in? Certainly it would be a measurable stat that would keep the board happy at the very least.

And what if a travel advertiser paid only half of their usual ad spend up front because they provided an affiliate URL to the publisher to earn a percentage of sales? That would be a win/win/win. The publisher would be inclined to promote the story across its social channels more, the brand would only pay the top up upon completion of sales (or other KPIs) and the reader would have a simple, integrated, one-click process to book if they chose to. Advertisers could even set KPIs to include clicks onto the landing page, sign ups to newsletters, new fans on Facebook, purchases of holidays, and more.

The problem with this model at the moment is that many of the larger travel agencies in New Zealand are franchised and there is no one-stop sales portal for online purchases. Instead, a user must choose a local store who then makes the commission.

This model is keeping my industry from expanding as consumers become more socially savvy and more impatient with processes which they deem to be time consuming and archaic. It’s also ensuring that publishers stick to traditional sales models which are in turn harder to find at the rates they need and we all know the magazines that have recently closed with newspapers hot on their heels.

So what’s the solution? I believe there is space in New Zealand for a travel brand who will work directly with a publisher (and may even be owned by that publisher) to sell holidays and flights off the back of great writing and well-crafted video for a win all round. If I were manager of one of the Big Three or the publisher of one of the aforementioned newspapers, I’d be looking into this model quick smart.

  • Megan Singleton (@bloggeratlarge) is an award-winning travel writer and former travel columnist at the NZ Herald. She is founder of one of New Zealand’s largest travel and lifestyle blogs www.bloggeratlarge.com and a weekly travel correspondent on Newstalk ZB and The Mix.

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