Travel Weekly: longer stories and better pictures
Travel Weekly has had a revamp to take it out of the Eighties, its editor Martin Lane said this week.
The redesign aims to give the title – a trade magazine for travel agents – a more updated feel with more pages and comment from travel agency staff.
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The masthead has been changed to lower case and a new strapline introduced which reads "The Choice Of Travel Professionals". Lane said the idea was to reflect the title’s website as well as the magazine. "We changed the masthead to lower case – it was a bit Eighties before," he said.
The magazine has also introduced more competitions after research showed free trips to holiday resorts were a big hit among Travel Weekly readers. Competitions will now feature on the front page every week.
"We also found the research indicated that readers tend to read Travel Weekly during their coffee break – they don’t take it home and read it cover to cover – so we have made the news pages easier on the eye with more news in briefs," he told Press Gazette.
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The new-look news pages will run three big stories rather than five with more nibs and an extra news page has been added to the front of the magazine. Lane said stories would be longer with shorter headlines and better pictures.
A number of new features have been added, such as a question and answer section based on The Sun’s ‘White Van Man’, where travel agents are asked to comment on leading issues. The ‘Mystery Shopper’ section, where a reporter goes undercover to ‘name and shame’ a specific travel agent, has also been increased to a double-page spread due to its popularity. "We have made it a bit edgier than it has been in the past. It has gone down really well with readers," Lane added.
The features section has been renamed ‘Departures’ and has adopted more of a consumer feel with alternative fonts and a new section called ‘Celebrity Watch’, which lists celebrities that have been spotted at certain resorts.
The editorial team has also undergone a couple of changes, with the appointment of Sarah Thomas as news reporter, replacing Fiona Robinson, who has moved to the features desk.
Travel Weekly is published by Reed Business Information and distributed free to 18,000 travel agencies. A further 6,000 copies are sent to associated tour operators.
By Ruth Addicott
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