Airbnb Gets Into Print Publishing With New Pineapple Quarterly

Airbnb is taking its enormous fan base, one of the most recognized brands in travel, and a missionary-like zeal for its take on the sharing economy and using it to fill the 128 pages of Pineapple, a magazine with stories about travel and cities and written by Airbnb hosts and guests.

According to Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall, "Pineapple will combine the emotional and practical sides of traveling by giving a comprehensive guide to neighborhoods and cities, as well as capturing the sense of belonging that comes from a memorable trip."

Airbnb joins a long list of travel brands embracing content marketing in order to reach potential travelers or deepen a relationship with existing ones. Onefinestay, a smaller and more selective sharing service, has published a quarterly magazine of its own for the last two years for free, and hotel brands such as Four Seasons and Marriott have robust publishing programs in print and digital, too.

Each issue will focus on a small handful of cities, with the first devoted to Seoul, London, and San Francisco. Airbnb will distribute the magazine to some of its top hosts, beginning at its hospitality summit Airbnb Open this weekend, as well as some specialty bookshops in the U.S. and the UK.