Langmead: insider feeling Navigator: dummy cover
Wallpaper is planning to launch an upmarket urban travel magazine in February.
Navigator will be a spin-off from the regular travel section in Wallpaper, with a focus on international design and architecture as well as travel, art and fashion in 10 cities each issue.
The 170-page glossy will also carry reviews and listings on the best places to eat, drink and stay, along with which table you should be requesting, which room has the best view and which bars have “the best-looking crowds – and on what night”.
Wallpaper editor-in-chief Jeremy Langmead said: “If you look at the guides that are available now, none of them quite fills the Wallpaper box.
Some of them feature bars and hotels, but no one gives you that all-round design aesthetic experience to a city, that real insider feeling, and it was something we felt we were able to do and should be doing.
“Everyone is travelling so much more now, particularly on city breaks, and people are much more interested in getting to the heart of the city. I think it will appeal to the Wallpaper reader but also to other people too,” he told Press Gazette.
The first issue will concentrate on Paris, Sao Paolo, Chicago, Sapporo, Berlin, London, Shanghai, Rome, Cairo and Copenhagen.
It will also have a section called “architour”, featuring buildings that showcase the work of leading architects who are changing a city’s landscape and “neighbourhood watch” – new and upcoming districts, populated by “in-the-know” locals.
Navigator will be in US A4 format and will be published twice a year.
The frequency may increase if sales are a success.
The first issue will have a print run of 100,000 and Langmead is hoping for sales of 50,000 to 60,000.
The launch has been overseen by Richard Cook, an executive editor on Wallpaper, and travel editor Jeroen Bergmans. Wallpaper regulars Nick Compton, Fiona Wilson, Sophie Lovell, Albert Hill and photographer Dan Tobin Smith are also among the contributors.
Wallpaper publishing director Richard Johnson said the travel guide market was in need of a shake-up, claiming that “too many city guides are out of date, too long-winded or too mainstream in their approach”.
He said: “They’re out of touch with the cosmopolitan thirtysomething audience that make up the vast majority of people taking city breaks.”
Navigator is due to launch on 12 February, priced £5.99.
By Ruth Addicott
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