Price for safety? Common sense
Posted: February 5, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: freelance journalists, lonely planet, lonelyplanet.com, mark broadhead, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »The Resources section of the text offers advice from 100 freelance journalists. Mark Broadhead of LonelyPlanet.com offers his advice on safety while traveling. According to Broadhead,
Scan your travel documents and email them to yourself. It was traditional to photocopy your passport and visas, travel insurance etc, and keep them in a separate part of your luggage. But that’s old school. These days, digital is best – that way your documents won’t go missing even if your bags do.
It may seem like a breeze, but be advised that teaching yourself to ride a motorbike or jet ski in a foreign country is probably unwise. In Thailand, for instance, 38 people a day die in scooter accidents. Nb some travel insurance policies won’t cover scooter-related injuries.
Evolving niche’ market: PANKS
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 2, Chapter 3 | Tags: digital women influencers study, nadine godwin, pank, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel weekly, travel writer, travel writing, weber shandwick Leave a comment »Chapter 2 points out that the audiences for travel journalism aren’t static; they change. Likewise, Nadine Godwin of Travel Weekly introduces a new niche’ audience for travel writers: the PANKs. According to Digital Women Influencers Study, researched by Weber Shandwick, PANK is defined as an acronym for:
professional aunt, no kids.
However, Godwin and the research includes all single career women who enjoy sharing travel experiences with young relatives or acquaintances in the PANK category. In the Digital Women article, research shows women are having less children than only several decades ago and these PANKs make up 1 in 5 of the US population. As the article appeals to marketers with a new angle to approach…
Essential skill: frugality
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, new york times, new york times travel, seth kugal, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel skills, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 aids the travel journalist by outlining tips, tools, and cautions which should help journalists cover stories at a home market or on the road. Likewise, Seth Kugel of the New York Times Travel section updates travel tips for the new year. Kugel devotes the entire article to helping travelers master the technique of traveling frugally which can lead to more experiences which in turn contributes to the travel writers end goal.
Kugel encourages the aspiring traveler to adjust their mental budget. Instead of thinking about staying home for another average weekend one should be
subtracting what you save by not being home. Surely you would have gone out for dinner and a movie one night, at least, so knock off $100. Add in gas, groceries, electricity, etc., and you’ve got at least another $50.
Kugel also warns that…
Extremely important niche’ topics: Cruising & Eco
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 3 | Tags: cruise, cruising, eco, eco-cruising, ecotourism, jennifer conlin, new york times, new york times travel, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing 1 Comment »Chapter 3 lists “Cruising” and “Eco” as important niche’ topics for readers. Jennifer Conlin of New York Times Travel section takes advantage of both markets as she explores the push for cruise lines to shrink their footprints. According to the article:
A one-week voyage on a large ship is estimated to produce 210,000 gallons of sewage, a million gallons of gray water (runoff from sinks, baths, showers, laundry and galleys), 25,000 gallons of oily bilge water, 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge and more than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes.
Hopefully the two niche’ topics can come together on better terms next go round. Combining niche’ topics is a great way to find unique angles to pursue.
Useful captions to enhance visuals
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: david miller, matador network, matadornetwork.com, photography, photography captions, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel photography Leave a comment »The text concludes with Resources for every travel journalist to consider taking advantage of. The matador Network’s David Miller drops another gem for the journalist. No doubt photographs have the ability to add value to a travel journalist’s work. Miller explains how to enhance these visuals with useful captions. Miller explains,
Instead of simply reducing / restating what’s already obvious in the photo, strong captions — what we at Matador call “narrative” captions — give the viewer context, backstory, information that the viewer CAN’T see for him or herself. This includes things like:
- Place names
- Subject names
- Backstory on the scene (example: at what point of the trip the shot occurred)
- Backstory or technical info on the shot itself
- Challenges or special circumstances not identifiable in the shot itself
- Information on future events the shot puts into perspective
Read…
Inner travel – working locally
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: backyard traveling, inner travel, local, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel advice, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 discusses the importance of travel writing without the traveling. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the concept of “inner travel.” Menkedick describes the process of inner travel as
It is a full-on sensory experience that yanks all those dormant parts of oneself, the parts that go plodding through the day to day in familiar places without really seeing, to life. The best way to experience “inner travel,” the process of moving oneself out of a familiar mental space, is to take no detail for granted.
Real culture
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: local foreign culture, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 suggests several criteria to guide the travel journalist in bridging cultural divides. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the travel journalist to consider modern aspects of foreign culture as authentic. In her article Menkedick compares traditional Chinese culture symbolized by dumpling restaurants versus modern culture represented by adolescence pulling all nighters in the local McDonalds. In Menkedick’s view both equally represents the local culture. Here’s an excerpt:
This idea of authenticity often reinforces the same set of power relations travelers hope to undo: the control of dominant, technologically advanced, “modern” countries over more “primitive”, poor countries. Why is it that “modern” countries are free…
Facing the fiscal cliff
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 6 | Tags: frugal, frugal traveler, Julie Schwietert, matador network, matadornetwork.com, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 6 discusses the opportunities for the travel journalist. As tensions build with all the media attention surrounding America’s economic situation, travel journalists may find themselves gaining more opportunities during tough times. Julie Schwietert of the Matador Network helps the journalist find opportunities as unemployment lingers around the country. Here’s one tip,
1. One sector’s pain is another’s gain.
The somewhat diluted value of the dollar has had an effect on other countries’ currencies that benefits travelers.
Consider the Mexican peso, for instance. After enjoying a lengthy period of relative stability (with the exchange rate being about 10 pesos to every 1 US dollar), the peso’s…
Rules to help writing
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: guardian.co.uk, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel skills, travel writer, travel writing, zadie smith Leave a comment »Chapter 4 outlines the essential skills and knowledge for the travel journalist. The guardian.co.uk put together a list of rules by Zadie Smith that may make any writer better. Here are a few of her rules,
- When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.
- When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.
- Don’t romanticise your “vocation”. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no “writer’s lifestyle”. All that matters is what you leave on the page.
- Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.
