In Praise Of Service Journalism

My career in the travel world started out by pure luck. I was assigned to work a temp office gig in the PR department of Condé Nast Traveler for two weeks, which turned into two years at the magazine, four more at a PR agency for hotels and travel providers and two more here at Gadling. Before and throughout my career, I’ve always been a major consumer of travel media, whether I’ve used it to inspire and help plan my personal travels, as a resource for how and where to pitch my clients, or for story ideas and to keep up with industry news. Some of my favorite stories to read or write have been service pieces, the much-maligned but reader-popular side of journalism.

Service journalism has been called the “fast food” of journalism, providing the reader with “5 of the World’s Sexiest Beaches!” or a suggested itinerary for exploring the city as in the New York Times‘ regular “36 Hours in..” series. While a narrative feature might probe into a culture’s essence, or try to evoke the feeling of a certain place in time, a service piece gives you quick tips, highlights the “best” of a place and may include lists, bullets and infographics. I like the definition of service journalism as “informational“: it tells you not just about a place, but how to get there, where to stay, what to eat, etc.At Condé Nast Traveler we promoted many different magazine articles from investigative stories on airline security to roundups of romantic getaways for Valentine’s Day, and it was generally the articles on how to save money booking your next cruise, or hotel packages involving chocolate-dipped strawberries that got an editor booked on the Today Show or a mention on the Associated Press. At Traveler, I worked with Consumer News Editor Wendy Perrin, whom I might call the Meryl Streep of service journalism: well-known and beloved in the industry, frequently honored but not as much as she deserves. Wendy publishes annual guides to the best travel agents, vacation rentals, cruise ships and dream trips. She was also a pioneer in social media, as one of the first “old media” editors to start blogging, and an early advocate of social networking platforms like Twitter as an essential tool for travelers. While a guide to the best credit cards for racking up frequent flyer miles may not sound poetic, Wendy’s writing regularly affects readers in a very real way, and she maintains an open dialogue to make sure readers are taking the best trip possible.

While I might read a travel narrative or even a novel to be transported somewhere else, a service piece helps me actually get going somewhere else. It was a L.A. Times article on the Corn Islands that got me to go to Nicaragua in 2007; of the few other Americans I met there, most of them were there because of the piece as well. A recent post from Legal Nomads might look like a standard list of travel tips, but it’s peppered with anecdotes, insights and links to other travel stories, and I was transported around the world with Jodi (and craving oranges) while I read it. A Nile Guide roundup of decaying castles has me plotting a trip to Belgium. Some of my favorite and most heart-felt articles I’ve written for Gadling have included finding the expat community and tips on travel with a baby. The Society for American Travel Writers’ annual awards have a category for service-oriented stories, but a few service pieces have snuck their way into other categories, such as the deceptively simple-sounding “Ten Reasons to Visit New Orleans.”

Looking through several of the major travel magazines, most stories are now accompanied by some kind of service information: a sidebar on farmers markets to accompany an essay on eating locally, or a back-of-book addendum of hotels and practical tips for a feature on a changing city’s political landscape. Perhaps all travel media should strive for this mix of inspirational, educational and doable. Our own Features Editor Don George explains that a successful travel narrative should describe a “quest that illuminates a place and culture.” A top ten list of summer vacation may not provide such a point, but a feature on visiting the Seychelles on a budget just might. Not all service pieces have to be fluffy, or recycled from press releases, or lacking insight. They can contain mini-narratives and discoveries, and at best, give readers the tools to create their own.

Shoot outstanding destination photos — with your iPhone

I used to think that the quality of a travel photograph was mostly hardware dependent, that a fancy Single Lens Reflex (SLR) or Four Thirds camera was critical towards capturing beautiful travel photos. Shots taken with my older, Canon SD300, for example, always seemed to be grainy, poorly lit and generally embarrassing to share among my friends and family. By contrast, my recent Canon Rebel XTi seems to take good photos irrespective of lighting, location or movement. Put enough monkeys in a room with a box full of SLRs, so they say, and the photos will turn out good eventually.

Application, I know now, is much of the battle. ISO speeds, megapixels, sensor quality and number of espressos consumed are all important variables in composing an ideal shot, and with enough training and tinkering, many cameras can produce a beautiful shot.

And then there’s the photographer’s eye, or simply put, skill. In a recent series for the Associated Press, photographer David Guttenfelder put together a stunning feature on the life of US armed forces in Afghanistan, shot solely behind the lens of his trusty iPhone. Yes, with 3 megapixels, no zoom, no flash and a tiny lens, Guttenfelder captured a series of photos better than all of the photos that I’ll ever shoot in my entire life. As it goes to show, talent, skill and composition are better than any hardware that money can buy.

Take a look at the series over at the AP website.

Want some more inspiration? Head over to our own Karen Walrond’s posterous blog for shots that she’s captured on her very own iPhone.

Americans stop going to Canada two years in advance

If you went to Canada this year, you’re in a shrinking minority. Visits across our northern border sunk to a 37-year low. Fortunately we have not one but two(!) factors to blame: the ongoing financial crisis and stricter U.S. passport rules. Obviously, unemployment continues its downward spiral, making it increasingly difficult for consumers to open their wallets. And, the tighter border-crossing rules have impacted the vast majority of Americans who don’t have passports.

The number of overnight trips to our northern neighbor have fallen from 16.2 million in 2002 to only 13.4 million in 2004 – based on the latest results from Statistics Canada. Of course, this statistic is totally worthless, as the true effects of the recession were not evident until the middle of 2008, and the passport rules were only enacted this year. So, I’m still trying to figure out just why the hell the Associated Press cited it. Anyway, visits were falling, and I guess the AP’s point is that the current factors just made it a lot worse.

I guess Americans forecasted both the economic decline and the passport rules, so they stopped traveling two years in advance.