If The New York Times, Budget Travel and National Geographic Traveler can do it, then so can Conde Nast Traveler! The glossy travel mag that's farmed out its web operations for so long has decided to build a new website of its own--and the magazine needs your help to do it.
Consumer News Editor Wendy Perrin, who is web savvy enough to have a Twitter account, announced the news on her blog:
Conde Nast Traveler's Web site, CNTraveler.com, will be spinning off from the Concierge.com mother ship next year and voyaging into cyberspace on its own. We're building our brand-new site from scratch--which has us all very excited--and I've been in a lot of discussions lately about what the new CNTraveler.com should be and what features it should have. Of course, we'd love to hear from YOU as well.
It started back in June, when David Kocieniewski wrote about his adventure paddling around Venice, dodging vaporetti and startling gondolieri in an inflatable kayak. He didn't even get a ticket for it, an impressive feat in the fine-happy city.
We get Peter Greenberg's radio show as a podcast via iTunes because there's no way we're getting up early on a Saturday to hear it. (Sorry, Peter!) But something strange happened yesterday when we checked our feeds: A not-quite-finished video snuck through with the mysterious description "This post is password protected." Obviously, we opened it immediately.
The 2-minute, 45-second pilot features a combative couple, "The Darlings," who are packing for a trip to the beach. Since all women pack too much (uh, right?), it's gonna take Peter's help to make sure they get things right. Now if only he could take care of that wooden acting!
The clip has openings for quick ads at the beginning and end, and the episode breaks in the middle for a 15-second commercial. No telling when or if we'll see these in production, but we hope the intern who accidentally leaked the pilot on iTunes gets to keep his or her job!
If you cashed a check for a Nigerian prince and you're still waiting on that payout, then have we got an offer for you!
World Swirl Press is looking for stories related to all kinds of travel misfortunes. If you've been pick-pocketed, scammed by your travel agent, kidnapped or were positive that he was a she or she was a he, then they want to hear from you. You'll even get paid if your story is selected, but just how much hasn't yet been decided.
Don't forget the details, as they want to know about every little miserable misfortune of your personal travel hell. If you've got a winner just bop on over to their site and submit away. They're accepting stories through the end of this year and hope to go to print sometime in 2009.
After John McCain used footage of her in a campaign ad, Paris Hilton is striking back with an absolutely hilarious video of her own, in which she presents her energy policy and plots an escape to Maui to get a great tan.
So what's that magazine she's consulting? It's the August issue of Conde Nast Traveler. Sorry T+L!
Stars... they're just like us! Kelly Rowland is trying to muscle her way into the travel-media field with a TV pilot. The show, tentatively called "Around the World," hasn't been picked up yet, but will supposedly show the best in hotels, restaurants and shopping around the globe.
Rowland seems like a grounded enough girl not to pull a "Taradise," but she needs a specialty like Tara Reid's. (Getting drunk and falling down in exotic locales is not a specialty.) Since she's a singer, maybe she can do a little ditty at the end of each episode?
For most people in New York, the Long Island Railroad is either the bane of their commuter existence or the one thing standing between Manhattan and partying on the beach. But writer Emily Meg Weinstein decided she'd ride the train just for the hell of it--and think about her upbringing in the suburbia it serves.
Her essay today in The Morning News gives a blow-by-blow account of a ride from Port Washington into Manhattan, as seen from her seat on the 11:11. Not far into her trip:
There is a bay--the bay across which Jay Gatsby gazed longingly at Daisy Buchanan, I'm always quick to point out.
Later Weinstein passes through Great Neck:
The kind of town where an enormous banner proclaiming "BOTOX IS HERE" is not considered to be in poor taste.
After the jump, we've Google Mapped all of her stops, and linked to Jaunted contributor Ben Hancock's guide to surviving the suburbs for you LIRR warriors.
Travel writing curmudgeon Arthur Frommer is celebrating his 1,000 blog update today by announcing that he's paring back on posting. Given his description of what it does to him, we can't blame the guy:
Back in May of 2007, I began this daily blog about travel and soon turned into a creature of bloodshot eyes and an exhausted, shuffling walk. Gone were the days when I could turn in around 11 pm and put myself out with a relaxing mystery novel.
Our two "favorite" things about his blog are the epically long titles on posts and the lack of linkage Frommer hands out. But you gotta admire a titan in the industry who cranks out his own stuff. (You are writing these yourself, aren't you, Arthur?)
In honor of his accomplishment, we took a look back at some of his more memorable posts.
