Travel Guides as Online Brands

Here's a brief story in The Wall Street Journal this week that talks about how a couple of travel guide publishers have been performing online.  The story features Wiley's very own Frommer's brand and provides some comScore traffic stats (which are noted as understated) as well as an annual advertising revenue range of $10 to $15 million for Dummies.com, CliffsNotes.com and Frommers.com combined.

Frommers.com is a great example of how a deeply entrenched print brand can indeed be extended online.  Heck, the first Frommer's travel guides came out 50 years ago, so who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?!