paidContent » Arthur Frommer

Post-Google, Frommer’s will publish print guidebooks again

Laura Hazard Owen — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 12:31:54 +0000

Last August, Google acquired travel guide brand Frommer’s from publisher Wiley for $23 million — and then, not surprisingly, decided to stop publishing the guides as print books. Arthur Frommer, the brand’s 83-year-old founder, didn’t like that, and in April he bought Frommer’s back from Google with a promise to bring the guides back to life in print.

Now that is happening: Arthur Frommer’s new publishing division, FrommerMedia, will publish the guidebooks in print again this fall, distributed by Publishers Group West, the New York Times reports.

According to the story:

“By the end of 2014, Mr. Frommer expects to release as many as 80 books. Mr. Frommer and his daughter, Pauline, will be co-presidents of the company. A new series, called EasyGuides, are an answer to the increasingly lengthy travel guides on the market that Mr. Frommer said were too long to be practical.”

It’s unclear what FrommerMedia’s digital strategy is going to be, if there is one; not surprisingly, travel guide sales have suffered in the face of competition from free online sources. Google kept all of Frommer’s social media accounts when it sold the brand back. The photo illustrating this post is from an iPad version of one of Frommer’s guidebooks, published through Inkling. I asked Frommer’s about its digital strategy and whether the Inkling partnership will continue, but Pauline Frommer told me, “We’re not commenting on this part of the business right now.”

Google sold Frommer’s Travel — but kept all the social media data

Jeff John Roberts — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:38:24 +0000

Mystery solved. Many were scratching their heads over why Google sold Frommer’s Travel Guides this month — less than a year after buying the brand for $22 million. The answer is the same as for why Google does nearly anything: data.

As Skift reported Tuesday, Google handed over the company to founder Arthur Frommer sans social media accounts. In other words, Google is keeping all of the followers that Frommer’s accrued on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest. These thousands — or more likely millions — of accounts are valuable because they represent a huge collection of serious travel enthusiasts.

While Google will not keep the Frommer’s name, it’s able to keep the followers by simply changing the name on the account; in the case of Twitter, all of the @FrommersTravel followers are now following Google-owned @ZagatTravel:

This account is now @zagattravel! Welcome. Stay tuned for info on where to go, where to stay and how to explore around the world.

— Zagat Travel (@ZagatTravel) April 9, 2013

The social media data will power Google’s ongoing forays into the travel market in which it offers services like flight and hotel search, and Zagat reviews.

In retrospect, it appears that the social media data may have been Google’s goal along when it obtained Frommer’s from publisher John Wiley & Sons for $22 million in August 2012. The company has not disclosed how it much received for selling the brand back to Arthur Frommer, who intends to relaunch the title’s print editions, which Google decided to discontinue in favor of digital-only offerings.

In response to a question about the social media accounts and the price of the sale, Google provided this response:

We’re focused on providing high-quality local information to help people quickly discover and share great places, like a nearby restaurant or the perfect vacation destination. That’s why we’ve spent the last several months integrating the travel content we acquired from Wiley into Google+ Local and our other Google services. We can confirm that we have returned the Frommer’s brand to its founder and are licensing certain travel content to him.

Arthur Frommer buys travel guides back from Google to keep print editions alive

Laura Hazard Owen — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:36:31 +0000

Google acquired Frommer’s Travel Guides from Wiley in 2012 — and then, last month, reportedly decided to stop publishing them as print editions. Now Arthur Frommer, the 83-year-old founder of the brand, has bought Frommer’s back from Google and will continue publishing the travel guides in print and digital editions.

The AP reported the news Wednesday night and quoted Frommer saying, “It’s a very happy time for me. We will be publishing the Frommer travel guides in ebook and print formats and will also be operating the travel site Frommers.com.” Google confirmed the news to Engadget, saying, “We can confirm that we have returned the Frommer’s brand to its founder and are licensing certain travel content to him.”

The purchase price was undisclosed. Google reportedly paid Wiley $22 million for Frommer’s last year. The travel site Skift first reported that Google would stop publishing the Frommer’s guides in print.

Frommer’s had published over 300 guidebooks since its founding in 1957.