How to Pitch: Branded Travel Magazines
An exhaustive alphabetical list of fancy airplane publications to pitch for $$$.
ACCENT
Aeromexico
Tone: First-class passengers only, lol. Extremely fancy and when not about fancy places to stay or eat, there are some stories about fancy historical sites to visit, profiles of artists and chefs.
Structure: English and Spanish, print only. Absolutely fantastic sections in this magazine: Works of Art, Architecture, Watchmaking, Hotels, Restaurants, Artist Biographies, Chefs. Previous recent cover stories on Korean tea, tempostasis, the Golden Triangle, and of course, WATCHMAKING. Prior to that: ROLEX. They love watches. You can read small excerpts of past issues here.
Contact: [email protected]
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AIRBNB MAGAZINE
Airbnb / Hearst
Tone: Lighter, more “adventure” driven. Meant to “encourage readers to be at home in the world.” Edited by Michael Steele, formerly the EIC of Us Weekly for 14 years, so it’s a little treacly.
Structure: Print, and online via Medium. They pick stories based on their relevance to popular Airbnb destinations, so keep that in mind. Very into trend pieces and guides over more one-off or niche stories — recent features being things like “How to Eat Your Way Through Queens” and “The Insider’s Guide to Copenhagen.” Some first-person narrative essays by more established travel writers, like this one by an AFAR editor who visited 229 cities in the U.S. to decide where she wanted to live or this one about Sloane Crosley going to Cape Town (hmm…riveting). “How Writers Travel” recurring Q&A section with people like Issa Rae and Ariel Levy.
Contact: General pitches inbox, [email protected].
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AIRE
Aeromexico
Tone: The coach in-flight magazine. Very straight-forward travel recommendation magazine with food and attraction write-ups, themes like “Asia” and “Road Trip.”
Structure: Monthly. Print only, Spanish and English. Mostly very short written pieces — the front of book in the most recent issue was like 100 words (in English and Spanish) explaining what cake is. Recurring themes are the Style, Adventure, Kids, Design, and Gourmet issues, which they do each year.
Contact: [email protected]
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AMERICAN WAY
American Airlines
Tone: Available on all American Airlines flights, typically a pop culture celebrity cover story called “My Travel Tales” (e.g. recently Demi Lovato, Ashanti, Katherine Heigl.)
Structure: Monthly sections: Travel, Culture, Food & Drink, Entertainment, Destinations. Recurring “Neighborhood Watch” feature which profiles specific neighborhoods in popular travel cities, e.g. Cooper-Young in Memphis, West Philly, Old Montreal. Celebrity profiles. “Foodie Travel” section, with new restaurant and bar profiles and guides to like, best indie donut shops in Los Angeles.
Contact: Bill Kearney (EIC, [email protected]), Derrick Lang (Senior editor, [email protected]), Jess Swanson (Associate editor, [email protected]), Chris Wright (U.S. editor, [email protected]).
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B
In partnership with Ace Hotel
Tone: Each issue is about a different brand. Real copy from the FAQ: “B pursues its quest for true value of a printed medium by becoming a magazine that would be worth possessing.” They select the brands to “unearth” and write about based on four criteria: “beauty, practicality, price, and philosophy.” Inarguably extremely funny that the theme of the latest issue was INSTAGRAM.
Structure: Print, once a month. They also publish elaborate issue trailers for each issue and upload them as PDFs that are impossible to read!! Incredible.
Contact: [email protected]
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CELEBRATED LIVING
American Airlines
Tone: “Published for the affluent, worldly customers who fly in American Airlines’ premium cabins and relax in the Admirals Club lounges.” About high-end food, fashion, real estate, “emotionally and spiritually enriching experiences.”
Structure: Bi-monthly, sections: Travel, Culture, Food & Drink, Entertainment, Destinations. Celebrity interviews (e.g. Angela Lansbury, model Niki Taylor, Argentinian polo star Nic Roldan, MARTHA STEWART, chefs and designers, painters etc.) Yearly “Platinum List Awards” issue for best hotels, restaurants, and “experiences” in the world.
Contact: Eric Newell (EIC, [email protected]), Jess Swanson (Associate Editor, same as American Way mag, [email protected], Chris Wright (U.S. Editor, same as American Way mag, [email protected]).
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CONRAD MAGAZINE
Conrad Hotels
Tone: Beautiful white lady holding a tropical drink in white linen.
Structure: Bi-annual. Print and online, print available only in Conrad hotels. There’s a celebrity cover story, and then sections: Style, Destinations, Food & Drink, Features. Features are about “inspired design, culture, and innovation,” so mostly things Bitcoin and indoor cycling? These are often less than 800 words and seem to be sponsored.
Contact: Andrea Booth, [email protected]
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CREATOR
WeWork
Tone: Activism-oriented, e.g. profiles of “food pioneers” and athletes invested in environmental causes, profiles of startups and startup-adjacent NGOs.
Structure: Online, and email newsletter. Profiles fall into categories: Young innovators, founded by women, and 40 over 40. How to guides (business advices), and Cities (U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, Israel, Netherlands). All of the features are labeled “Creator Awards,” e.g. recent profiles of an architect redoing sanitation systems in Rio de Janeiro, and an app a Brazilian woman made to help women avoid street harassment.
Contact: Bridget Riley, editor, [email protected]
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DEPARTURES
American Express
Tone: Very specifically luxury travel guide.
Structure: Print and online, email newsletter, published via Time but print version is sent only to American Express cardholders for free. Sections: City Guides, Travel, Home & Design, Fashion, Art & Culture. Fashion stories are things like “Finding the right fit: Louis Vuitton Made-to-Measure shoes for men.” The Agenda is the recommendation section with listicles of best Italian road trips and ethical fashion brands and American farmers’ markets, etc. Arts section has guides to Art Basel and jazz festivals, etc, sub sections are books, philanthropy and film. All blurb-y length.
Contact: [email protected]
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EN ROUTE
Air Canada
Tone: More familiar recommendations and travel tips. Direct flash photography!!
Structure: Print and online. Online sections: city guides, food & drink, arts & culture, sports & wellness, travel tips, eco-travel, family travel, hotels. Print-only sections: The Short List (recommendations like “4 Amazing Greenhouse Dining Rooms”), Flight Deck (about airplanes and pilots), Insider’s Guide (city profiles). Mostly American and European cities, some larger cities in Asia as well. Front-of-book is called Passport, “short pieces on global travel lifestyle finds.”
Contact: Some public pitch guidelines on their site (short features 200 to 550 words, long features 1,200 to 1,700 words). [email protected]
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FOUR SEASONS
Four Seasons
Tone: Utilitarian, tourist-y guides to cities where there are Four Seasons hotels. Beautiful print photography though!
Structure: Print (in hotels only) and online, also an email newsletter. Print is almost 100 percent fashion ads, so there are also some fashion / style features (short, like 800 words). Sections are Discover, Taste, Thrive, Kids & Family, Best Of, and Local Secrets. Listicle heavy — “7 Water Sports to Conquer,” “Summer Picnics to Swoon Over.” And image heavy — “Your Most Instagrammable Day in Toronto,” “Our Most Instagrammable Desserts.” Local Secrets are city guides written by residents. Profiles are mostly of chefs.
Contact: [email protected]
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HANA HOU
Hawaiian Airlines
Tone: Upbeat profiles of communities and weird adventurers specifically in Hawaii.
Structure: Bi-monthly, print and online. Pretty much all features. Most recent issue: “Feature stories on the perils and rewards of summiting Mauna Kea; a community of surfboard shapers in an unexpected place; and how a kid from Palolo became one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most legendary photographers. Also: the inside workings of Moloka‘i’s championship robotics teams; the legacy of nineteenth-century Hawaiian heiress Mary Foster; Hawai’i’s masters of magic; the extraordinary life of navigator Max Yarawamai; and Meleana Estes’ heritage haiku lei.”
Contact: Michael Shapiro, editor, email isn’t listed but there’s a contact form https://hanahou.com/contact
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HERE
Away luggage
Tone: “Here Magazine started as the stories and pictures we picked up on the road and shared with our immediate circle, then grew into something bigger. Now, we explore places through the lens of local, creative, and influential people.” Editorial director Ally Betker came from Vogue and The Cut.
Structure: Print and online, email newsletter. City Guides (“like a local”), Essays (Travel Journal, essays on “journeys of the mind”), Interviews (Packing List, interviews with people “who know how to pack). Recent features: “Why Artists Are Escaping to San Miguel de Allende,” “The Secret Life of a Corporate Flight Attendant,” “Tour Companies Take a Feminist Approach to Adventure Travel.”
Contact: [email protected] or Ally Betker [email protected]
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HEMISPHERES
United Airlines
Tone: Typical travel recommendations, sometimes a little quirky (elves!). Design and culture focused.
Structure: Print and online. There’s also Rhapsody, the first-class version of the magazine, which calls itself The Paris Review of the air (lol) and has the same editorial staff. From the site: “In addition to its signature ‘Three Perfect Days’ feature—which offers a first-person, itinerary-style, nooks-and-crannies portrait of a city—Hemispheres covers global culture, adventure, business, and sports.” Design pieces on very specific features (e.g. recently a spa ceiling), celebrity Q&As, recipes. Longer form than other in-flight magazines.
Contact: Ellen Carpenter, editor, [email protected], Justin Goldman, deputy editor, [email protected]. Other contacts here.
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MARRIOTT TRAVELER
Marriott
Tone: Basic as hell travel guides. E.g. “Haven’t been to NYC’s Koreatown? It’s a Hotbed of Food, Karaoke, and Curiosities.”
Structure: Online and email newsletter, print only in Marriott Hotels. Basically all listicles, recommendations for culture, food, bars, “romantic getaways” and wedding destinations, family trips, etc.
Contact: Marc Graser, editorial director / EIC, [email protected]
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THE NATIONAL
Amtrak
Tone: Kinda high-brow, lots of art and architecture and stories about little-known places, photo essays. Considers itself a “culture” magazine, edited by small team in Ink’s Brooklyn satellite office.
Structure: Bi-monthly, print (on the train!) and online. Issues are themed with around five features per issue — most recently “American Visionaries” with features on James Turrell, MIT Media Lab, Spike Lee, Elizabeth Diller, Tara Donovan. Recent (July 2018) call for pitches from Lauren: “Looking for FOB ideas: arts/culture/food/hospitality/sport/makers/offbeat destinations/quirky characters.”
Contact: Lauren Vespoli, senior editor, [email protected]. Alex Hoyt, executive editor, [email protected]. Photo director, Jesse Adler, [email protected]
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OPEN SKIES
Emirates Airlines
Tone: Serious longform, high-end photography.
Structure: Print, monthly, longform. Out of Dubai (via Motivate Publishing), they do a lot of big-picture urban planning and eco stories, “the rise of wellness communities,” “reclaiming the desert” etc.
Contact: [email protected]
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SKY
Delta Airlines
Tone: Kind of more like a stereotype of an in-flight magazine. Very dry and male and corporate American oriented. Probably better to write to if you’re just looking to churn out some copy to make cash, not place an actually interesting story.
Structure: Monthly, print, weird (very hideous) online blog run by their style editor. The print version is mostly city profiles and sponsored guides to things like “men’s health” and “business education.” The cover story is sometimes a celebrity but usually just American city or state themed, e.g. ATLANTA and SOUTH DAKOTA previously this year.
Contact: [email protected].
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SOUTHWEST
Southwest Airlines
Tone: More casual and more interested in longer personal essay than some of the others. Focus on food and general interest stories.
Structure: Monthly. Print and online, with email newsletter. Lots of recipes and healthy eating tips online, in addition to expected travel tip stuff. Print features include first-person reported stuff with original photos (e.g. visiting the West Coast Falconry), first-person essays with illustrations, and reported stuff about American towns doing interesting things. Three sections: Features, Travel (recs), and Point of View (essays).
Contact: Some public pitch guidelines. Pitch to [email protected].
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WALDORF ASTORIA MAGAZINE
Waldorf Astoria Hotels
Tone: Fancy! What do you think? Travel and luxury themed features and recommendations, um, “superyachts.” Only issue 1 and issue 2 are online for some reason but truly wild rich people language here. Palaces!
Structure: Bi-annual. Print (only in Waldorf hotels), some features online. Cover stories are celebrities (most recently Lupita N’yongo), features are about haute couture designers, architects, fancy cocktail artisans, etc. Sections: Culture, Food & Drink, Destinations, Style & Beauty. Photo essays with text by known writers are mostly about very expensive homes or resorts or neighborhoods or travel destinations.
Contact: Andrea Booth, [email protected]
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