Town and Country Travel is Kaput
Monday, August 25th, 2008Running a magazine full of perfume and watch ads (surrounded by a bit of travel content) is apparently not a sure thing anymore. Town & Country Travel is folding.
Here’s the quote from Wooden Horse Publishing:
TOWN & COUNTRY TRAVEL, the quarterly spin-off, has been folded by Hearst Magazines. Launched in 2003, the magazine became a supplement in 2006. “Given the small number of people affected, and that the product never was a full-fledged newsstand magazine, but rather a polybagged brand extension, it made sense to fold the content into the flagship,” a spokeswoman said…
I’m not sure what it takes to be “a full-fledged newsstand magazine” since I used to see a stack of copies on the shelf at every Borders and Barnes & Noble. Perhaps they mean you couldn’t find it at Wal-mart?
The magazine was launched with plenty of fanfare in 2003 and this quote from the editor-in-chief looks kind of comical now. “I believe the moment is right for a magazine called Town & Country Travel, largely because I know there is an audience eager for it.” Hmmm, maybe not so eager after all.
The one article from this magazine that really stuck with me was perhaps emblematic of the limits of its audience. Fifteen women took so much stuff with them on an Inca Trail hike that they required 54 porters and 800 pounds of food. The New York City writer doing the story admitted that she hadn’t been away from home for more than a week since her 12-year-old daughter was born.
The publisher will still operate a travel section on their website, but for Latin America anyway, there are better places to find luxury travel features and reviews.


Here’s an interesting
Apparently this is all driven by the average Joe and Jane tiring of ports like Cozumel, which is “packed with 15 ships on busy days.” John Tercek, vice president of commercial development for Royal Caribbean is quoted in the article saying, “People like to brag at a cocktail party, I’ve been to some place you haven’t.” As if stopping in a cruise ship port for a few hours is “being somewhere.” Good god.