Culture + Travel Scaled Back to Quarterly Schedule Amid Belt-Tightening
Culture + Travel, the idiosyncratic young magazine known for its high-minded approach to travel writing, has been hit with substantial budget cuts about three months after trade journalism vet Bruce Morris joined its parent company, Louise Blouin Media (LBM), as chief operating officer.
To C+T readers, the most obvious change involves the magazine’s publication schedule: Starting this November, it will move from a bimonthly schedule to a quarterly one.
Circulation is also apparently going down—according to Mr. Morris, copies of the magazine will be sent to a total of 40,000 subscribers. Last August, that number was at 75,000, according to an interview conducted at the time with C+T’s editor-in-chief, Kate Sekules. Ms. Sekules had been brought over from Food and Wine a few months earlier, about a year after the magazine first launched in the fall of 2007 under the leadership of ex-Condé Nast editorial director James Truman. Mr. Truman, who was the founding C.E.O. at C+T’s parent company, resigned in October of 2006.
Reached by phone last week, Ms. Sekules confirmed that C+T was becoming a quarterly, but referred to Mr. Morris when asked about what other budget cuts the fledgling magazine will weather as LBM, which also publishes Modern Painter and Art + Auction, takes steps to turn it into a profitable property.
Though unquestionably a niche publication, operating under a controlled circulation model, C+T offered wide-ranging coverage of the art world, food, architecture, and design from around the world. The latest issue features, among other things, a piece from professional travel writer Anya Von Bremzen about Valencia, one from critic Daphne Merkin on a gallery in Austria that exhibits work by mentally ill artists and one from Atlantic Monthly reporter Graeme Wood about cave temples in Damanhur.
Ms. Sekules said the budget cuts from LBM did not discourage her. "I love this magazine," she said. "I really believe in it. We’re doing something really different—there is some substance and some soul to it.”
She continued: "I didn’t expect to feel this passionately about it at the beginning, but I do. I’ve got a great, great team—tiny but gifted. I think we can survive this and get through it and come out the other side stronger."
I say good luck to the team. C+T does offer a different take on places of interest to cultured readers. What a shame if advertisers don't appreciate that audience.
C+T is GREAT! Been getting it since its inception. Lush beyond the traditional travel
mags, it offers different places to imagine, with wit, adventure and intelligence.
The fact that I get it for FREE is mind boggling. It is superior, far better in compelling me
to spend time with it than the 'others' that I do pay for. If it went 'paid' I'd buy it. That's how good it is.
Rd'E
This doesn't bode well for the future. The parent company has already folded many good magazines. This is probably the last ditch effort. Too bad they don't have smarter business minds since the editorial side of things deserves better.
C + T is one of the better magazines that covers anything at all related to what one encounters when one journeys near and far. It's got a gifted editor and editorial talent - and a knack for not imitating others but communicating a passion for the world in its own voice. It's opened an aperture on the world not likely to be duplicated elsewhere, challenging the gentle reader to re-examine his or her own ways of seeing. I hope it manages to survive and thrive even if its frequency decreases. Those who know the magazine love the terrain it makes its own - perhaps advertisers need to read more.
I love C + T and hope it survives! I get the magazine for free because I subscribe to Modern Painters. The content is refreshing and how it approaches the journey of traveling is relevant. It has it's own expression. My hope is that the bean counters put a little more money in marketing the magazine. I never see it on the newsstand.
Having had dealings with that company I'm sure it's not the lack of advertisers (they have ads and they're a start-up), but some knuckleheaded decision. This is exactly when they should be pushing ahead full steam, not cutting the cord and starving the baby. C+T is phenomenal, and has caught the eye of everyone in media. It is unique and brilliant and advertisers DO like that. Kudos to the editorial team. And the best of luck.
C+T is my favorite magazine ever. It's like a little cult. Everyone I mention it to feels the same way, if they know it. And if they don't, I tell them to subscribe. Hope they can get through this.
Of the top 6 travel magazines C&T is the worse. National Geographic Travel & Budget Travel clearly just beats it in writing, photographs, and the how-tos of travel. Even small niche mags like Go World Travel do a better job of talking about the art world in various communities. Nothing in C&T is new or could not be found in a 10 minute internet search.
If want to know the address and exhibits in the top 20 Europe museums or one of 4 USA art places, they cover it OK, outside of that you get nothing.
Minneapolis, Art Museum of Sao Paulo, or MasterWorks in Bermuda are great art places but get nothing. Instead we get Palm Beach which is all about and private collections.
C+T has "advertisers" because it gives away its pages for free, basically. It's an incredibly poorly run company that will run any good idea or staff into the ground and ruin it.
You're on crack ewj. Evidently you're barely literate. I've read every issue of C+T cover to cover and they never even covered private art collections. It's full of how-tos. In fact it's the ONLY travel magazine that makes me want to go places, see/buy/watch things. The others are puppets for advertisers.
I agree with everyone except ewj. C+T is far and away the smartest travel magazine out there and the only one with a soul. It dares to publish articles on places like Romania and Mali that deserve to be better known. It has the brilliance to publish the work of the legendary Maira Kalman. Long live C+T.
If you want to read how to navigate boites in Barcelona or find a budget hotel in Kuala Lumpur, please, buy another magazine. There are plenty of them. But if you want to read literate observations about weird corners of world culture, C+T is where it's at. Plus, it's damned ravishing.
fyi, you can subscribe at www.cultureandtravel.com
Also free trial issue offers are often found on www.artinfo.com
Whatever advertisers C+T had will be jumping ship now, as no advertiser will support a magazine that is obviously having the support of its parent company withdrawn. Shifting its frequency to quarterly and cutting the print-run are tell-tale signs of the "magazine death spiral." Morris should be ashamed of himself for not having the cojones to either invest in the magazine or kill it. It's clearly a very different company from the era of James Truman and Ben Crawford.