Craig Martin: Pretty crazy, huh? The internet is infinitely flexible, but there’s just something exciting about doing page layout: we have room to play and create something really beautiful. I think that’s something missing from the blog world: there’s lots of great content but we struggle with creating the equivalent of a full page spread – matching themes with written and visual elements and having complete freedom there.

We see the Indie Travel Podcast as much more than just a website. At the moment it’s a growing travel brand with audio and video downloads, articles, photographs and community presence. Over the next 12 months, we’re expanding with iPhone and Facebook apps, a growing number of travel ebooks and the start of a guidebook collection. The magazine’s the next step for us as publishers.

Voyageek : Which readers are your aiming at and how do you differentiate from existing travel publications ?

Craig Martin: Indie Travel Podcast Magazine is for thinking travellers, for adventure travellers, for independent travellers of all ages. When we say “budget” we don’t mean $200 a night like some magazines! That said, it’s certainly not just hostels and hitchhiking: there are places and ideas in here that suit singles, couples and families.

We’ve created a magazine that we’d like to read: it includes thoughtful commentary on travel issues, highlights popular destinations — hopefully with a fresh angle, and also spotlights emerging destinations. We’ve tried to keep things practical by including pull-out guides, toolkits and regular columns for key areas.

“A photo in the paper magazine might be replaced by a video in the online version”

Craig Martin: Yes and no. What we had to think of was in terms of rich media: it’s easy to embed a video or picture slideshow into a blog post, or hyperlink a term rather than giving an explanation. On paper, we don’t have that luxury and I suspect that’s where the digital and print versions might diverge in the future. There will be similar content, but a photo in the paper magazine might be replaced by a video in the online version.

We have quite high editorial standards for our site: each piece gets read by at least three different people before it is published and independent fact-checking is done when possible. This is part of what makes us a trusted source and it’s the same for the magazine so there were changes to that process.

“We’re estimating 18,000 print and digital copies delivered in the first three months”

Voyageek : What’s your target in term of circulation of the magazine ? How many subscribers do you need to ensure this will be a sustainable project ?

Craig Martin: Ahh, the magic numbers! It’s a quarterly magazine, so we’re estimating 18,000 print and digital copies delivered in the first three months, with numbers rising after that. The digital versions are going to make up the bulk of those numbers with around 150 print copies being sent to our first subscribers and sold through some retailers. We’re in distribution talks with outdoors stores and booksellers to greatly increase that print number by the December edition and next year.

Voyageek : Are you not afraid that the free pdf version will compete with the paid version and result in less paid subscriptions ?

Craig Martin: Not at all. We always planned to have free digital distribution alongside a paid print version. A low-resolution PDF is free and we’re selling a higher-quality digital version as well as the print version.

Some people like print, others prefer digital. We can’t sell a blog post in a shop or as part of a tourist board’s promotion. At the same time, we can’t afford to give away 20,000 print copies right now and throw in international postage as well!

As an independent publisher, we don’t have large amounts of capital to dip into. Each project needs to pay for itself and so we have to charge in order to pay our photographers, authors, designers and also to keep ourselves eating, drinking and on the road. We hope that those who can afford it will pay for a print or digital subscription and support our work.

Interview by Merrill Goussot for Voyageek

You can subscribe to the Indie Travel Podcast Magazine online