ABSTRACT
Turning towards recent innovations in the tourism industry, this chapter looks at the sharing economy and how it intersects with journalism. In 2017 home-sharing company Airbnb launched a magazine, Airbnbmag, that publishes original content and stories. Rather than an endorsement of the magazine, the chapter seeks to discover how this sort of model can still require the journalistic work that has been described in the previous chapters. Commercial interests are inherent in travel journalism, but is Airbnbmag more than just one large advertisement? By understanding how journalistic practice manifests itself in this branded magazine – including storytelling, sourcing, and curating – future travel journalists can see the possibilities in these new types of publications. First, it becomes clear that the changing face of the tourism industry will have an ever-evolving effect on travel media and journalists. Second, the sharing economy, inasmuch as it is still a novelty in the Web 2.0 era, presents a large amount of source material for journalists to use. While simply a snapshot in 2018, this study suggests that travel journalists will be able to maintain relevance if they embrace the travel industry’s changes while acknowledging the challenges inherent to new types of media models.
