Xplore, for college kids with loose feet

Xplore, for college
kids with loose feet

From Jungle, a travel title enters a crowded field

By Jeff Bercovici

   Although it may seem that way, people who get off on dangling from cliffs or snorkeling with sharks aren’t necessarily stupid.
   They’re smart enough to know, for instance, that many of the destinations that offer the most thrills for a backpacker’s buck—particularly in central and southeast Asia and the Middle East—aren’t as safe as they once were for American tourists.
   So it might seem like an inauspicious time to launch a new magazine aimed at exactly the group most likely to frequent the hostels and nightclubs of the world’s trouble spots: college students.
   Yet they are the intended audience of Xplore, a new magazine set to debut in January with an initial circulation of 350,000.
   Xplore comes from Jungle Media Group, home of MBA Jungle and JD Jungle magazines, in a custom publishing arrangement with STA Travel, an agency that caters to student travelers and serves some 4 million customers per year.
    Jon Housman, a co-founder of Jungle Media, acknowledges that the travel business has been in something of a funk since last year’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The bombing of a Bali nightclub two months ago, in which some 200 people died, mostly young Australian tourists, can only contribute to the slowdown.
   But student travelers are less likely than most to use increased danger to tourists as an excuse for staying home, he says.
"This is one of the more resilient sectors of the market," says Housman. "We haven't seen any letup in demand."
   That’s largely because college students tend to take the same sorts of trips generation after generation—the junior-year semester abroad, the senior spring break in Mexico, the post-graduation summer in Europe. Having planned their vacations years in advance, they’re reluctant to cancel them just because, say, war breaks out.
   "It's kind of like the rite of passage that they don't want to miss out on," says Housman.
   Travel anxiety isn't the only obstacle Xplore faces, however.
   It will also have to fight for readers' attention against a slew of other titles aimed at the young and adventurous.
   For outdoor types, there's National Geographic Adventure and Blue as well the more established Outside. For those who value thrift over adrenaline, there's Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel.
    Housman says Xplore will attract an even younger audience than the above titles, focusing exclusively on 18-to-25-year-olds, and its articles will offer a mix of outdoor and indoor coverage.
    As far as getting it into the hands of readers goes, Xplore has an answer to that. It will be distributed through STA's 130 locations on U.S. college campuses and sent out to recent STA customers.
   Jungle Media's other titles, JD Jungle and MBA Jungle, employ similar methods, distributing copies through business and law schools.
    The company specializes in reaching young readers at critical points in their lives.
   Happily for advertisers, these tend to be the points when the readers are spending lots of money and making important decisions about the future, and Xplore will be no different in that regard, says Housman.
"This is a stage in life where an individual is starting to gain independence, starting to stake out their social independence and financial independence."
    Xplore won't accept ads from travel agencies other than STA, but Housman says agencies make up a relatively small proportion of travel-sector advertising compared to hotels, resorts, airlines and cruise lines.
   According to the Publishers Information Bureau, magazine ad spending by transportation companies, hotels and resorts has fallen 4.3 percent to $659.9 million year-to-date through November.
   Of the magazines with which STA will compete most directly for advertising dollars, only National Geographic Adventure is up significantly this year in both pages, with 464.4 through November, and revenue, with $13.9 million.
   Outside is flat in pages, with 798.7 year-to-date, and up 8.2 percent in revenue to $49.9 million.
   Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, which appeals to penny-pinchers rather than thrill-seekers, is down 5.8 percent in pages, with 483.9, but up 11.6 percent in revenue, with $12.2 million.
   Housman points out that by focusing exclusively on college students, Xplore will reach a younger audience than any of the above titles.
   The plan calls for Xplore to publish two issues in 2003, with the intention of increasing both frequency and circulation the following year. A small number of issues will also be distributed to newsstands for testing.
   Jungle Media is launching another magazine early next year as well: Savoy Professional, an offshoot of Savoy, an upscale lifestyle title for black readers published by Savoy Media. Its circulation will be 100,000.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us