travel guides

When I first saw images of Amazon’s recently released Kindle it immediately conjured up memories of ‘Forbidden Planet’. It looked so lumpy and cumbersome and almost Fisher-Price in design.

Then I watched the demo video and suddenly I was on the waiting list to receive my very own, fired-up as the product name suggests.

According to Maureen Wheeler, BBC Worldwide is "committed to keeping the publishing side going". In an online video, the Wheelers reassure Lonely Planet fans (and staff!) that, despite the BBC Worldwide deal, the company will continue to produce printed travel guides. This is obviously a big concern to Lonely Planet fans, as many comments on various blogs and websites illustrate.

Reports are surfacing about the BBC's acquisition of a controlling stake in Lonely Planet. The deal, rumoured to be worth a couple of hundred million dollars, could see a massive change in the online direction of the much-loved travel guides. More soon.....

An interesting article, by Finlo Rohrer for the BBC News Magazine, mentions HarperCollins' decision to omit any reference to the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square in an upcoming travel guide. "Travel Around China" is to be published in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.