Maclean’s magazine’s partnership with Toronto-based travel information site TakeOffeh.com, which provides content for its online travel section, advances this week as it launches a quarterly print insert on Thursday. The new quarterly does not have a name but will be presented with the TakeOffeh.com logo on its cover. The travel site, which launched in January 2008, offers readers travel tales, links to trip packages and advice on the latest hot spots. But it also covers news and current affairs that concern the travel industry, says chairman, Nina Slawek.
Maclean’s‘ 2.8 million readers are a good readership fit, because they take about seven trips a year and are interested in candid, newsy content, Slawek tells MiC. ‘We try and give consumers a lot of understanding of how travel operates,’ says Slawek, who also operates sister site OpenJaw.com, a B2B travel industry publication. For instance, a story in the upcoming 14-page print section explains how hotels get their star ratings, and a video interview with the CEO of travel group Thomas Cook North America about fluctuations in pricing is linked from Macleans.ca. Other articles include a first-person piece on Vienna (online), and the best places to visit for parents with tweens (print).
Targeting the 35-plus, skewed female demo (because they’re the ‘decision makers and the ones who spend more time shopping for travel’), TakeOffeh.com has about 25,000 unique monthly hits, but Slawek hopes that because of the recent projects with Maclean’s, traffic will grow by about 25% over the next six months. Its CTR is averaging around 3%, and in addition to banner ads, it offers a listing service that will now also appear on Macleans.ca. This kind of crossover partnership is also applied to the print insert. While the magazine is in charge of coordinating ad sales, some of the site’s clients were brought to the table, including retailers, operators and airlines.
