Budget Travel magazine is put on ice for the winter, and it’s not sure when it will return

Skift Take

With a mission that promises to help its readers to travel cheap, it's been a challenge for the magazine to connect with the type of advertisers who can spend tens of thousands of dollars on ad pages. There's a reason "Travel + Leisure" features Louis Vuitton luggage rather than backpacks, you know.

-Jason Clampet

If you’ve been waiting for your next issue of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine to arrive in the mail or at the newsstand, don’t hold your breath. The last print issue was September/October 2012, and there’s no firm commitment to publish future editions of the magazine.

Responding to an inquiry by Skift, Budget Travel Media Relations head Amy Mironov Janish said, “Subscribers can enjoy the November/December issue online.” Curiously, there is no mention of this issue online and thumbnails on the site of the most current issue are from September/October.

Earlier in the day, Janish told consumer advocate Christopher Elliott in an email that despite the lag between physical issues, “We hope to see a return to the printed edition in 2013.” Elliott emailed Janish after one of his readers forwarded him a subscription cancellation that read “The magazine has ceased publication.”

Like many other magazines, the once-robust Budget Travel has faced dwindling ad pages over the last three years. After the Washington Post Company sold the magazine to Fletcher Asset Management in December of 2009, it continued its slow decline in ad pages that left the title looking more like an insert than a magazine. Most recent editions fall in the 48-60 page range.

It hasn’t helped that Fletcher Asset founder Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher has been embroiled in a high-profile lawsuit while at the same time the firm has left the magazine to fend for itself by withholding additional investments. Former Editor-in-Chief Marc Peyser left the magazine in October of this year and was replaced by Gillian Telling, who’s in charge of re-invigorating the title, but has few resources following layoffs in December of last year.


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  • http://www.facebook.com/david.paul.appell David Paul Appell

    Under Newsweek back in early 00′s, Budget Travel dumped Arthur Frommer (and I resigned as Exec Ed even before that because I saw the handwriting on the wall) and started watering down its ‘budgetness.’ It’s been swirling the drain for years – I’m just surprised it’s lasted this long.

  • http://www.facebook.com/fixed.good Fixed Good

    pig fuckers

  • pc

    I was about to resubscribe today.the bad thing about this company is that they didnt even bother or inform me that my subscription needed renewal in 2011.they just stop delivering it. i hate their demise,but they deserve it.

  • em

    I was waiting for my next issue and it hadn’t come, I didn’t know if I needed to renew my subscription, Thanks for the notification on the end of the magazine after years of being a faithful subscriber !!!

  • dennis

    What about us who paid for 2 years. Any thought of return our money Budget Travel? Received only 2 issues and now no way to get a refund? Anybody out there know how to reach them, or maybe a class action suit would help get a response.

  • shelby

    Sad… I so enjoyed it. But more Canadian content would have been a good idea.

  • Dennis x 3

    I’m in the same boat but re-subed for 3 years. Screw these thieves.

  • JazBing

    So what about people’s subscriptions they paid for? They should refund them or extend them if they do come back…

  • Elizabeth

    I had just renewed for 2 more years. There has been ZERO communication to subscribers, so I will never subscribe again if they ever come back (which I doubt).

  • Lynn

    Yes, I renewed for 3 years to start Nov. 2012 and no one bother to send me any information as far as the magazine is now defunct. I am disapointed in Budget Travel and the Company that took my money and didn’t bother to notify me or refund my money!

  • Linda

    I signed up for 4 years and $40 dollars later.I realized I hadn’t had a magazine since the Sept-Oct issue. I feel so cheated, I guess they were just suckering people into extending the subscriptions. What now?

  • rere

    ditto…I paid up front for 3 years. now because they screwed me I will NEVER do an upfront magazine subscription again. I got advice to take them to small claims court and im doing so now. does not mean I will collect but its the principle and I hate being ignored.

  • HEF

    This was my favorite travel magazine b/c they wrote about things I could actually afford! I, too, wondered why I didn’t get an issue after September 2012 and am sad the new owners (who probably bought it just to wring out all the money they could) let it die. I, too, would like my $$ back (have subscription thru May 2015).

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