Loneliness of the long-distance takeover

MEDIA & MARKETING:IN CITIES across the globe, media companies plotting a route to profit are glancing at each other, confused. There's just no guarantee that anyone is reading the map the right way round.

They could do worse than to scan the journeys, fortunes and misadventures of a certain travel publishing asset owned by BBC Worldwide. This one-time dog-eared bible for hippies travelling on a shoestring has expanded to become the bestselling, hipster-penned guidebook empire that, with the grumpy wisdom of near-middle age, recently pinpointed the Irish character as “fatalistic and pessimistic to the core”.

Welcome to the rough guide to Lonely Planet, or seven lessons to learn from a media brand that represents both cautionary tale and, who knows, maybe even a (slight) cause for optimism. In some respects. Let’s not get carried away.

Lesson one: Why not sell at the top of the market?

Ah, 2007. It wasn’t a great year to go shopping. Yet that’s when BBC Worldwide, the public broadcaster’s commercial arm, spent £88.1 million (€112.5 million) acquiring a 75 per cent stake in the Australian-based Lonely Planet. Founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the writers of the original 1973 guide, later exercised their right to sell their remaining stake, taking the BBC’s investment to £130.2 million.

Last week, BBC Worldwide admitted it now valued the business at £85 million.

Lesson two: If all else fails, blame those pesky currency exchange rates.

BBC Worldwide has taken a £16.1 million impairment charge on the travel publisher, attributing the move to an unfavourable exchange rate between the Australian dollar, the currency in which it incurs most of its costs, and sterling, the dollar and the euro, the currencies where it earns most of its revenue. In an effort to rebalance costs, Lonely Planet is relocating its digital business from Australia to the UK.

Lesson three: Speaking of digital, isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?

“The world wide web is a rich resource for travellers. You can research your trip, hunt down bargain airfares, book hotels, check on weather conditions or chat with locals and other travellers about the best places to visit (or avoid!)”

That’s the anachronistic and rather generous top tip from my 2002 edition of Lonely Planet’s guide to east-coast Australia.

Since then, well, the interweb has become a little too rich a resource, and sales of travel guidebooks have plunged an estimated 40 per cent since their 2005 peak, according to market tracker Nielsen. (BBC Worldwide calls the market “challenging”.)

Lonelyplanet.comnow has an average of 11.3 million monthly unique users – not bad, but the intervening decade has seen the rise of TripAdvisor, which has almost five times as many users.

Lesson four: Niche publishers may yet conquer the smartphone faster than generalist ones.

Monthly unique website users are only one part of the digital story. Downloads of Lonely Planet iPhone apps have reached 10 million, while its ebooks, according to BBC Worldwide, have been “a big growth area”, with more than 260 titles available and revenue up 200 per cent year-on-year.

Kindle-endowed travellers prepared to pay for downloadable content may be the saviour of the guidebook industry, even if print sales continue to flag.

Lesson five: Everybody prefers television anyway.

Although BBC Worldwide claims that Lonely Planet is performing “creditably” against its guidebook rivals, there’s nothing like a spot of brand-leveraging. The past year has seen BBC Worldwide commission Year of Adventures, a five-part series fronted by Ben Fogle and based on a Lonely Planet book of the same name, while a series derived from the Lonely Planet 1,000 Ultimate Experiences title will be next to hit screens.

The launch of a Lonely Planet-branded channel would not be a shock – think National Geographic, but with hostels.

Lesson six: Skimp on costs.

I once met a freelance writer who worked for Lonely Planet in North America, and she explained that she was given a fixed, modest budget for her travels, and whatever she had left at the end of it all was her pay.

The name of the game, therefore, was to persuade accommodation owners to let you have a swift look around their premises without actually having to fork out for a night’s stay.

Lonely Planet makes a point of paying its way and not accepting advertising, but it’s not so stupid that it’s going to throw cash at writers.

Lesson seven: Being a little bit arsey can generate excellent publicity.

You may remember such recent Lonely Planet headlines as “Pessimistic Irish ‘still worth a visit’” and “Letterkenny mayor defends town against guide criticism”.