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Breaking News: Lonely Planet bought by BBC

Travel guide publisher Lonely Planet today was acquired by BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the British broadcaster.  BBCW purchased a 75% stake in the company, founded by Tony & Maureen Wheeler in 1972. The Wheelers, who pioneered the long-haul guidebook category with their first title, Across Asia on the Cheap, retain a 25% share in the company.

Lonely Planet has evolved over three decades into a leading global brand for independent travelers, with a list of more than 500 guidebooks and the multiple-webby winning travel site, Lonelyplanet.com.

One reason for the purchase is Lonely Planet's potential for growth in the digital space and global markets, said the BBCW. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Article: Can the Washington Post Survive?

It's no great secret that the US newspaper industry is freaking out. But how can writers, reporters and content producers adapt to the changing needs of the industry? What's the best plan of action for staying relevant to the editors?

In this Fortune Magazine/CNN.com report by Marc Gunther on the state of the Washington Post, the answer is to diversify: Reporters increasingingly provide multi-platform content that stretches far beyond words, while publishers are rushing headlong into new media solutions.

(Fortune Magazine) -- Barry Svrluga, a 36-year-old baseball writer for The Washington Post, was on his way to the barber when an e-mail pinged his BlackBerry telling him that the Washington Nationals had sent two struggling pitchers to the minor leagues. Svrluga detoured to Starbucks, wrote a 572-word commentary on his laptop and posted it to his blog, Nationals Journal at washingtonpost.com. After his haircut he swung by the Post's newsroom to do a live question-and-answer session online with fans. That night, after filing a story for the newspaper, which he calls the "$0.35 edition" in his blog, Svrluga recorded a ten-minute podcast for the Web site, with sound bites from team officials and players.

Like most reporters at the Post, Svrluga has become platform-agnostic, which is a nice way of saying that his bosses are no longer big believers in print. Today a small army of bloggers, podcasters, chatroom hosts, radio voices and TV talking heads, as well as a few old-fashioned ink-stained wretches, populates the newsroom at the 131-year-old Post. They understand that Donald E. Graham, the chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Co., is hurrying the paper into the digital future. "If circulation is dropping," Svrluga explains, "and we're trying to figure out how people are going to get their news, who am I to say no to trying out new avenues?"

New avenues: That's the story of the newspaper business right now. Alarmed by declining circulation, advertising and profits, America's newspaper publishers - as hidebound a collection of businesspeople as you can find - are thrashing about to see whether they can separate the news from the paper and still make money. They're going way beyond the headlines.

Full story, here.

Rick Steves Radio & Lonely Planet: Interviewing Jay Cooke

Europe guru Rick Steves and travel publisher extraordinaire Lonely Planet couple up for a series of interviews on travel's state of the state. I'll be interviewed about New Orleans and New York City on Tuesday, Nov 28. Start times TBD, for the rest of the schedule click here: Rick Steves Europe: Interview Schedule.

Wallpaper Joins Crowded City Guidebook Fray

Cosmopolitan, stylistic, upscale, exclusive: Following the same successful design-focused blueprint employed by their namesake magazine, the brainpowers that be have launched Wallpaper City Guides.

They pass the test in this New York Times article, which praises the series' reduced list of selective attractions, and wallet-friendly sticker price of $8.95. Or just a buck more than one issue of the magazine.

2006 Lowell Thomas Awards - Society of American Travel Writers

Congrats all around! 2006 Lowell Thomas Awards / Society of American Travel Writers.

Lonely Planet New York City 5

Hot off the presses, Lonely Planet's New York City 5. Featuring interviews with New Yorkers on their tips and tricks for navigating NYC.

therefore_I_travel
Originally uploaded by droccadnoh.

Travelers Tales: the World is a Kitchen

Kimchi 김치
Originally uploaded by Nagyman.

kimchi
Living in Korea, kimchi was the staple. Back stateside, the cravings panged. First I bought it, then I made it, to make Mr. Cho proud.

Food and travel are deliciously intertwined, and cooking is a great way to get immersed into a culture. I learned it making kimchi in my Fort Mason backyard, and love to reconnect with true tales of food cultural immersion.

The World is a Kitchen, the new Travelers Tales anthology, bridges cuisine and culture in 37 stories from writers around the world. With an extensive directory and fab accompanying website, the book speaks to its growing community.

Back to the Big Easy

As Commissioning Editor - US East at Lonely Planet, my terrain includes New Orleans and the American Gulf South. It also covers Florida, so I was aware of that class one hurricane that ripped across the state, toward the Gulf of Mexico and class 5 infamy as Katrina.

I wrote LP's breaking news dispatches during the week of Katrina, and hosted a Lonely Planet podcast discussion of post-hurricane Louisiana with Lonely Planet author Pableaux Johnson.

  New Orleans Protest Car 
  Originally uploaded by howieluvzus.

In November, I returned to New Orleans to report on its progress, three months post-Katrina. I toured the neighborhoods, with an eye toward the reopened few outposts amid the bathtub ring.

  Debris 
  Originally uploaded by emmajane82.

The city has far to go but many believers and a hearty defiance. To survey and spread some love, go now.