When a Magazine Goes Online: A Case Study in the Tourism Field

Abstract

In this paper, the digital hybridization of travel magazines is studied, presenting how they are using their online presence to extend their reach and expand their business. This is done by means of a grid, designed to cluster all the types of content and functionalities offered online by 120 different travel magazines, giving a synthetic overview of their actual use of the internet. Actually, when entering the online world, travel magazines get many elements that are not affordable on a printed paper, while at the same time losing other elements. But this process is not just a matter of adding or removing features; rather, it requires a deep re-consideration and re-invention of online travel communication itself, offering venues for new business models and for new agreements between the magazines and their readers, yielding to a new communication landscape.