If there was ever a bad time to launch a new magazine, the autumn of 2008 was surely it. Yet, in the face of global economic collapse, Lonely Planet Magazine, a title which, pre-launch, looked like its core advertising base might implode with the anticipated collapse of consumers' discretionary spending, has done better that just survive. According to the Jan-June 2010 ABC figures, which showed circulation up 34.4% period-on-period to 54,708, it's become one of the fastest growing magazines in the UK.
An ambition from the outset to be truly international and an unflinching commitment to building subscriptions from day one are the two key strategic pillars on which the title has built its success, according to Dominic Murray, publishing director, and editor Peter Grunert, who together have driven the title's development at BBC Magazines in the three years since BBC Worldwide took a majority stake in Lonely Planet back in October 2007.
Controversial acquisition
The BBC's decision to acquire 75% of the Melbourne-based travel guide business, which was founded by Maureen and Tony Wheeler and generated a profit of just under £7m in the year before the deal was done, caused quite a stir at a time when the BBC's commercial activities were under close scrutiny by legislators and competitors - and still are. But the Wheelers' ambitions to extend their brand internationally beyond guide books and online into magazines and TV combined with the global potential the Lonely Planet brand offered the BBC in a field which, while broadly sitting well within its field of interest, was not a market it had yet exploited much beyond TV, was - for the respective new partners, at least, if not their competitors - a nice fit.
"The acquisition was a catalyst for the Lonely Planet brand," says Murray, formerly Gardeners' World publisher, who joined BBC Magazines over a decade ago. "The Lonely Planet business had long wanted a consumer magazine as part of its portfolio. The BBC's involvement enabled that as well as offering a fresh opportunity to grow both its digital presence and Lonely Planet production for TV."
Planning the launch
As soon as the ink was dry on the deal, a BBC team went to Melbourne, where the Lonely Planet company is still based, to start work with the business's existing team on how best to grow the brand and develop the magazine. And almost immediately, according to Grunert, a former Top Gear magazine deputy editor, the new title's potential was clear. "Lonely Planet as a brand is well-known for encouraging the imaginative traveller," he explains. "The existing consumer travel magazine category at the time, however, was divided between extreme adventure, fly and flop, and top end luxury travel ... or else existing titles' focus was on specific destinations. There was a clear opportunity for us to become the world's first truly global international travel magazine brand."
Closer analysis of the marketplace showed existing titles typically enjoyed lower monthly sales on average than in other sectors. Purchasing patterns, meanwhile, were sporadic with many readers buying titles only when researching their next trip. "We set out to take a different approach to frequency by creating a product with high purchase frequency at its heart," Grunert adds.
"We picked up on a real sense of frustration amongst many readers that too many existing magazines offered ideas that just weren't actionable. Our editorial approach was to cater for the imaginative traveller with all the cultural context and beneath-the-surface detail they expect while, at the same time, ensuring we also provided shorter form, more practical pieces about places many readers might be more likely to actually visit." This led to the creation of the popular regular feature ‘10 Easy Trips’. At the back of each edition, meanwhile, are a selection of quick access Mini Guides. Inspiration, Grunert adds, came from travel books and newspaper supplements - not so much those dedicated to holidays as others focused on lateral subjects with real, local relevance like arts, music, food or cars.
"The team also agreed to prioritise visuals - making a decision to commission every photo shoot rather than buying in to ensure images closely reflected the writers’ experiences. Our inspiration here came from the numerous travel-inspired TV factual entertainment shows - like Stephen Fry in America - that have proved so popular amongst TV audiences in recent years," Grunert continues. "Typically, we have four or five shoots underway at any one time."
Providing readers with a social platform within the printed product to share travel experiences was also key. The regular Postcards (Where You've Been, What You've Seen) section features seven or eight readers' travel photos each month accompanied by their details and a favourite trip-related anecdote. This slot alone has attracted more than 3,000 unsolicited unpaid-for submissions over the past year.
Subscriptions strategy
Internationally, travel titles such as Conde Nast Traveller and National Geographic Traveler did already exist in a number of markets, but both Lonely Planet and BBC Magazines were confident they could grow rather than cannibalise existing readership. "We knew we had to do something different - to create a solid foundation for international growth and counter criticism levelled at the BBC for getting into this area in the first place," Murray adds. "Subscriptions became a strategic priority." Today, more than half - a little over 30,000 - of Lonely Planet Magazine's circulation comes from subscription sales.
Cross-promotion between different magazine titles within the BBC Magazines portfolio has played a dominant role in early subscriptions drives. Also important, however, were trial offers to convert newsstand readers to subscribers; close working relationships with third parties, including retailers such as WH Smith and Tesco; and digital initiatives - both via Lonely Planet's own multimedia portal and other BBC platforms. Two years on, digital is becoming the dominant engine for subscription sales. And in recent months, the magazine has benefitted especially from exposure within a new travel vertical within www.bbc.com - the BBC's international website available only to users outside the UK.
Prior to Lonely Planet Magazine's launch, Lonely Planet already had a web site, www.lonelyplanet.com. In the two years since, the brand's online presence has been upgraded and expanded into a rich content, multimedia online portal which is far more than 'just' a digital edition of the printed product.
The digital dimension
"Online is a major opportunity for the magazine, both to distribute selected content and to grow subscribers to the printed product," Murray says. "The magazine is absolutely integrated into the online content and commercial development. But the philosophy behind the site itself, which is managed from Melbourne, is to take the best content from a wide array of different Lonely Planet products, also including guidebooks and, increasingly, Lonely Planet-produced TV."
Moving forward, significant potential lies in developing digital applications - both travel-related services for Lonely Planet users, and magazine-related apps for emerging digital devices, Grunert believes. A Lonely Planet Magazine iPad app is now in development, for example. "The iPad is just one of a number of tablet devices that will change the game over the next few years," he explains.
"Already we're working closely with digital content providers, and it will be exciting to see how the boundaries will increasingly blur. We're wondering about the potential for us of augmented reality; of using digital devices to point at a view and have key features instantly identified; the opportunity to communicate with a community of travellers while on the move is really exciting. And we know there's a ready market for travellers using social media to seek out information or simply share their travel experiences."
The commercial outlook
This is also a growing expectation amongst advertisers, of course, and here, too, Lonely Planet is working hard to expand its business. Advertising is sold cross-platform and the current focus is on developing longer term, strategic commercial partnerships.
"I can't pretend given the economic situation over the past two years that the market hasn't been challenging," says Murray. "But advertising performance has been strong in spite of that. The travel industry has proved remarkably resilient. And the interest of consumers in travel, whether they are actually travelling, which many of our readers do - on average five times a year, or whether they are staying at home, remains a passion and a priority for their disposable income."
As important as the UK circulation success of Lonely Planet Magazine is its growth overseas, of course. And to date, eight further national editions of the title have been developed - typically under licence by local partners. It's a strategy that follows BBC Magazines' Top Gear model with different national editions free to take content generated from the UK as well as commissioning their own.
A further measure, meanwhile, is evidence that the title has indeed achieved what it set out to: namely, growing not cannibalising the UK travel magazine market. Latest ABC figures suggest the UK consumer travel market was up 7% year-on-year in the first half of 2010. Which is one reason, perhaps, why Murray insists he is not unduly worried either about the launch this December of National Geographic Traveler (UK), a new local edition of the international travel magazine which will be produced under licence by Absolute Publishing or, indeed, plans recently confirmed by the BBC for a possible sell off by BBC Worldwide of BBC Magazines.
"National Geographic Traveler is a magazine we like and respect and we are positive about it coming to the UK where, we hope, it will further grow this magazine sector," he insists. "Because ultimately, it's all about growth. We are growing - both our own sales and sales for the category as a whole. As an international title there is still significant scope for further growth outside the UK - India and China are particular markets that excite us at the moment. And it is this long term strategy rather than anything else that our attentions will be fixed on in the months to come."
