Comments

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  Ed Wetschler January 13, 2010 at 8:38pm

  Yes, Jose, I have a thought: That's a damned good tip. Thank you.
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  inka piegsa-quischotte January 13, 2010 at 8:37pm

  Oh yes. Do you think I could convert my Guida to Galica to the same thing?
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  José Balido January 13, 2010 at 8:34pm

  Is this the future of travel guidebooks?
  
  I just bought Tripatini member Chelle Koster Walton's iPhone app guide to Florida's Sanibel/Captiva islands for all of $1.99. It's interactive and works beautifully, with pictures, detailed reviews, prices, Google maps, it even tells you how far you are from the beach/store/restaurant/whatever you want to go to.
  
  As I understand it, Chelle published it with Sutro Media's user-friendly online interface, then Sutro makes it available on the App Store and Chelle gets a cut when people buy. For those of us who realize that print media are in trouble and are looking for new revenue streams, this could be an interesting avenue to pursue.
  
  Thoughts?
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  Emma Krasov January 13, 2010 at 7:23am

  My CA readers favor Mexican Pacific, so I'm trying to find some hidden gems there every time I write about it. Any suggestions on Puerto Vallarta? A beach, a park, a street view, a little restaurant not to be missed? I'd appreciate a word of advice from more experienced travelers/collegues. Gracias.
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  Jennifer Merigan January 13, 2010 at 6:04am

  It's great to hear everyone's thoughts on press trips - i have had some good and some bad - the hardest thing is to try and get an angle which is going to be worthwhile for readers - i am really picky about the trips now because if there is nothing in the itinerary worth pulling a story about i just dont bother. I have always wondered why they dont give journos the opportunity to ask what story angle they are keen for and then organise a couple of days when you can focus on that story angle. There is no such thing as a free lunch!
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  Ed Wetschler January 12, 2010 at 5:50pm

  That's a great war story, Susan, and thanks to Max for steering us to this article. My biggest peeve: Press trips where you never have time to stop and smell the roses, because umpteen sights and sites and activities and meals are on the schedule.
  You end up eating at some good restaurants -- but not quite enough to write a food story. You visit some museums -- but too quickly for you to be able to write an honest evaluation of the museums. You go on one hike (abbreviated, no less) -- but you haven't really done enough to write an outdoors story. And so on. Ergo, no angle and a this-and-that focus that screams "PRESS JUNKET!" to the readers. Moreover, because of the this-and-that nature of the itinerary, there's no story in the story.
  Understand, there are good guys here, too. A recent press trip to the Alps was good because it had focus and we did things in depth. A recent individualized trip to Toronto was very good, too, because the media reps asked me a lot of questions and delivered an itinerary that resulted in bona fide stories. Win-win.
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  Susan McKee January 12, 2010 at 5:22pm

  Unfortunately, the article is viewable only by those who pay extra for Avant Guild on Media Bistro.
  
  But, your comments are spot-on. I remember one press trip where we visited a hotel closed since 1965 (really!) that the CVB hoped we'd write about so they could find somebody to invest in rehabbing and reopening it!
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  Max Pesling January 12, 2010 at 4:17pm

  Anybody catch today's bit in MediaBistro on "navigating press trips"? Most of it is nothing most of us in the business don't already know, but there's one point in particular that spoke to me:
  
  "'Be sure there's an understanding that you're going on this trip with every intention of writing something publishable, but that if nothing interesting happens both of you reserve the right to not publish anything," said Chris Elliott, writer of the syndicated Travel Troubleshooter column, which appears in more than 50 U.S. newspapers and Web sites.
  
  Pat Washburn, a freelance journalist for publications including The Boston Globe and MaineToday.com, suggests first considering whether you are interested in writing about the subject, your readers are interested in reading about it, and if there is anything about the trip that sends a bad signal. For instance, if you're asked to commit to a certain number of published stories, or to sign anything preventing you from exploring certain aspects of the destination, you should immediately decline the offer."
  
  We all need a hook or angle worth writing about, and especially these days, with fewer pages to work with, editors can be cagier than usual. So unless I have an ironclad assignment, I evaluate the likelihood of a trip producing information that will actually result in a story, and try to probe and research it beforehand, but it can be difficult sometimes these trips are just dog-and-pony shows that don't cover anything new or that have crazy stuff on the itinerary. I remember one trip where two days were wasted on attractions of interest only to locals, while totally ignoring one of the great colonial quarters of the Western Hemisphere. How nuts is that? I had to extend for an extra day in order to cover that colonial quarter -- which made up the core of the two pieces that resulted from the trip. Was it bad planning or political considerations? I'll never know.
  
  Anyway, check out the Media Bistro item, and it would be interesting to hear everybody's thoughts on it.
  
  http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a10751.asp?c=mbennf
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  Max Pesling January 11, 2010 at 11:12pm

  Thanks, Mary Alice, Eric & Ed, I think all three of you are on to something, and at the risk of sounding platitudinous (is that a word??), I'd say we each have to find our own way, but I hope we will all keep sharing experiences and strategies here. They say there's strength in unity, and by golly, we all could use some strength right about now.
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  Madelyn Miller January 10, 2010 at 5:16am

  A TRAVEllady.com contributor is going to New Zealand next week for a month. Looking for contacts and recommendations for him