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BBC Worldwide Buys Travel Guide Company Lonely Planet

By Rafat Ali - Sun 30 Sep 2007 11:58 PM PST

From paidContent:UK: BBC Worldwide, the international commercial arm of BBC, has bought Lonely Planet, the travel information group founded in Australia in 1972, for an undisclosed sum. Founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler will retain a 25 percent share in the company...Besides the 500 odd guides it produces, the company also also produces and develops factual programming for international broadcasters through Lonely Planet Television and has a big presence online and on mobile. full details here.

Posted in: Companies, BBCi, Countries, Australia & NZ, UK & Europe, VC+M&A

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From Jason Halberstadt Mon 08 Oct 2007 05:49 PM

The sale is mostly an admission of defeat in the Internet age and that the Wheelers don’t get the online world.
There’s two fundamental problems with the guidebook industry in the Internet age.
First, about 80% of people use search engines to research their destinations before traveling. LP and others have all their content locked up inside of the books, so if someone is looking for info on a remote destination, they’re not going to find it on lonelyplanet.com and they’re not going to make a cent off of their content.
Second, the job of maintaining every destination on the planet updated is a job too big for the old fashioned model of sending a writer out into the field every few years. This is a job for a social network, a la wikipedia.
BBC seems to be mimicking the model of http://www.vivatravelguides.com who have these two issues solved. Other guidebook companies would be wise to read the writing on the wall that the BBC has written for them.