Conde Nast Traveller Wants to Teach Travel Journalism

Conde Nast Traveller — the thinner UK one, not the truth taste in travel one — is hosting a two-day seminar aimed at selling its expertise to aspiring travel writers and photographers.

For a $900 admission fee, instructors from the magazine will share insight over the weekend of January 25 at Conde Nast’s Vogue House in London. Topics include charming editors, taking a good picture, social media outreach, and something called getting “on the digital ladder.”

The speaker line-up includes:

• Nicholas Coleridge, President of Condé Nast International
• Melinda Stevens, Editor of Condé Nast Traveller
• Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland
• Martin Morrell, award-winning travel photographer
• Tony Cross, Executive Editor of CNTraveller.com

Editor-in-Chief Stevens has one of the more entertaining editor’s letters you’ll find in a monthly magazine — combining loopy memories of childhood with total Ryanair-related meltdowns. Tip for attendees: You only get to write this way if you are an editor-in-chief.

This is the first time Conde has put on the travel course, but in 2012 the magazine brand dove into education in the UK, launching the Conde Nast College of Fashion and Design. One imagines it teaches, among other things, which Louis Vuitton-related stories you absolutely must commission when Louis Vuitton buys a full-page ad.

One participant will be selected to visit an English country house for a weekend and write about it for the magazine. It does not say whether the contributor will be paid in money or in attention.

Making back the $900 may be a challenge for most of the travel program’s participants. According to the National Union of Journalists, CN Traveller pays a little more than $250 for a 400-word story — and that’s pretty good pay for a travel writer.