When was the last time you read a magazine? Except for the aircraft trapped in the airshed, bored to flip through the aviation advertising magazine behind the seat, the heavy coated paper, as if it had disappeared into our lives for a long time.
The once-famous magazine publishers, Condé Nast's "self," "details," and "lucky" all stopped struggling two years ago. Even the men's magazine Attic abandoned the paper version and turned to electronic. However, even the electronic version of the magazine has survived, and in February last year, Yahoo announced that it had taken away a large number of electronic magazines. In short, the magazine industry has long since ceased to flourish.
However, a travel company has stumbled into the muddy waters, and airbnb, a self-proclaimed travel company, is about to partner with publishing giant Hearst to launch a new print-only magazine, Airbnbmag, which will officially hit the North American shelves on May 23.
This isn't the first time Airbnb has published this magazine, as early as 14 years ago, Airbnb launched a magazine called Pineapple.
At the time, the $12 quarterly magazine told the story of Airbnb in London, San Francisco and Seoul, like a photo of each homeowner on the site, a paper magazine that told the secrets of homeowners, the travel experiences of different people, and the most important thing was, of course, those good Airbnb photos. The magazine shows the concept of community that Airbnb has always wanted to have. However, the magazine that looked delicious did not become as expected, and after the first issue, it became a permanent collection.
Inside page of Pineapple
This time, "Airbnbmag" is a step further, the price of $3.99 is more affordable, the first issue has not yet been listed, the publisher has decided that the second issue will be released in September this year, it still looks like a quarterly publication. Unlike Pineapple, which completely abandoned advertisers, the magazine side said that if it can get the strong support of advertising, then the magazine's plan has reached 2018.
In addition, without the limitation of the theme location, Airbnb seems to hope to create a new topic concept with the support of the massive data behind it. CEO Brian Chesky said that the hundreds of millions of clicks and searches that Airbnb receives every day have become the best helpers for magazine content and editors. Airbnbmag will look for the most talked about topics based on the site's data. Cuba, for example, in the first issue, was the most searched destination on Airbnb. With digital support, this form of publishing from the last century seems to have a little more truth.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Hearst Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles
Airbnb now has 15 million users, and its own magazine, even if you let every homeowner buy one, is the world's number one best-selling magazine. Publisher Hearst took a fancy to this, and their ambition was that an airbnbmag would appear on every airbnb coffee table.
Although Airbnb itself is not a small controversy, this sharing economy travel model has a large fan base, and this relatively solid community is obviously the most promising consumer of Airbnb's magazine. For Airbnb, the magazine also reflects their textured community philosophy.
In order to be able to turn short-term rentals into a new concept of off-site living, Airbnb has made a lot of efforts to promote its own depth and breadth. For example, last year's host conference in Los Angeles became a community carnival, launched third-party services in addition to listings, and added the concept of enriching the entire travel, such as ordering meals, ancestral books, air tickets, activities, and customized services, all in the hope of giving the website more room for development.
A small magazine is derived from online to offline, just like the Starbucks Cooperation Cup and the Moleskine City Book, a pile of visible and touchable coated paper, like a trip or to an airbnb group, like a membership medal, becoming a souvenir that can be preserved. These are not necessarily useful, not necessarily useful, but with a unique attitude and design taste of proof, like peripheral products, fascinating.
Of course, we can also imagine that airbnb will recommend the homestays they provide, give some off-site short-term rental plans and tips, for example, in the first issue of the magazine, there will be a Columnist of the New York Times, telling readers how to use the kitchen of the homestay. Of course, Airbnb doesn't intend to make the magazine a complete advertisement, in which travelers share stories of their adventures. As the inaugural issue, they also brought in Elon Musk and astronaut Mark Kelly to discuss space travel.
It looks like it's going to be a good magazine, don't know how many Airbnb homeowners will pay for it?