Travel Blog to Barnes & Noble: Off Track Planet Hits Stores Nationwide Next Week!
Off Track Planet, the popular webzine recognized as the travel brand of the “young, sexy and broke”, will now be available in print at over 300 retailers across the U.S., including Barnes & Noble, BookStar and Book World.
What started as a blog site created by a group of travelers who met at a Brooklyn, NY hostel in 2009, now reaches over 1.2 million readers. Up until now, the print version has only been available at select college campuses, hostels and through Off Track Planet’s website.
Catering to the 18-30, low-budget travel audience, OTP is a departure from traditional travel journalism, taking on a brash and edgy tone with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor. Articles that can be found in the upcoming Winter issue include: “OTP’s Guide to Paris’ Finest Sex Shops”, “What the F*ck is a Sherpa?” and “How to Party your Ass Off in Reykjavik”, in addition to valuable travel tips, stories, recommendations and advice.
Born out of a passion to “create more movement around the world”, co-founder and CEO, Freddie Pikovsky says, “there is a disconnect with the way travel has been communicated to our A.D.D.-ridden generation. We feel we can inspire a travel culture, especially in the U.S., with a resource that’s engaging and relatable, covering the things young adults really want to know about when going abroad.”
Anna Starostinetskaya, OTP’s co-founder and Editor-in-Chief adds, “we believe that in order to change the world, one must see it first. We hope to give OTP readers a nasty travel itch and the resources to scratch it.”
Acknowledging the challenge of succeeding as a print publication during difficult times for most publishers, Freddie explains “we originally published the first issues of our magazine as tool to help promote the website at hostels, but readers demanded more and it took off almost by surprise. We’re excited and look forward to seeing it grow.”
Print aside, Freddie admits OTP is focused on developing a travel discovery and trip planning platform for the social and mobile web, which is set to launch in beta version in early 2012, that he says will “open the flood gates to millions of new OTP travelers.”
The cover price of the quarterly magazine is $4.95 and will be available at stores by Jan. 4, 2012.
OTP will host a magazine launch party at Hostelling International (the largest hostel in the U.S.) on Wednesday, Jan. 18th, 2012.
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Very cool! Congrats!
Thanks, Stephanie! Only the first of many big announcements coming from OTP.