I used to be an avid reader of travel magazines. The printed ones. Then, a couple of years ago I stopped buying them. Too expensive, too much advertising, too many heavily photoshopped photos.
Instead, I started reading travel blogs. I like the personal touch, reading about experiences more than travel reviews, and most of all having the possibility to interact with people, sharing views, tips and similar passions.
After a very long time, I’ve come back reading a travel magazine, the newly launched WildJunket, a digital publication for travel and outdoors lovers created by Nellie Huang and her husband Alberto Molero. Nellie is a passionate traveler, always in search of new adventures and awesome or thrilling experiences. She runs an awesome blog and her writings have been featured in many important publications, including CNN Go, National Geographic Intelligent Travel, Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Food&Travel, International Lifestyle, Wend and more… But most of all, Nellie is a friend.
If you like adventure travel and outdoor activities, you will love WildJunket Magazine
In the past months, she told me about her new project of launching an online travel magazine, the hard word she and her husband Alberto were doing, and how thrilled she was feeling. Becoming a publisher was definitely a very ambitious project, and a huge step forward from blogging. When we met in London during the World Travel Market, Nellie showed me a draft of the magazine layout and at the first glance I was truly awe-struck. The layout was extremely professional and very catchy. Since then, I’ve been looking forward to reading the first issue.
WildJunket Magazine was launched on January 16, and I was eager to read it and share my impressions and personal ‘rating’.
Look & Feel: * * * * *
The magazine is catchy and has a fully professional touch, starting from the cover and all way long.
Contents: * * * *
Well balanced, with full size photos showing a snapshot of beautiful places, trip ideas for wildlife lovers, and a core of destinations features among which The secrets of Namibia’s desert, Polar bears encounters in the Arctic, Sami traditions in Lapland, including a few essential travel information. Plus tips, thoughts, a calendar of the most interesting events over the forthcoming months and travel/outdoors gear review. The world map in the table of contents highlighting the destinations covered in the current issue is a very good idea although I would have expected to see the photos related to the key features, while I found the mix a little confusing. It might be also interesting in the future having an interactive section, offering the readers the opportunity to ask questions and providing tips and ideas.
Photography: * * * * *
There’s nothing like images to enhance readers’ imagination and WildJunket photography is powerful. Beautiful pictures with the right amount of editing that make you feel you are looking at the authentic place.
Writing: * * * * *
This is, in my opinion, the strongest point of the Magazine, leveraging on a team of contributors (Abigail King, Candace Rose Rardon, Sarah Lee, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, Andy Jarosz and Megan Eaves) including some of the best travel writers I got to read in the last years. The articles are beautifully written, narrating awesome experiences often from an unexpected and original angle. WildJunket offers great story-telling, both fascinating and inspiring.
Layout: * * * *
No doubt there’s been a lot of work and study behind WildJunket layout, however there are still a few details that need to be fine tuned. This is mostly a matter of consistency of the graphic elements, typography, layout (I know, I’m sometimes maniac on the little things) that will surely be improved in the next issues.
Readability: * * * *
The Magazine is optimized for smart phones and tablets and I tested it on my I-Phone with excellent results. On the whole, the readability is good although it might be further improved by picking out overall font dimensions enabling to read all contents at a given page size without having to increase or decrease the percentage (as it happens now in the photography captions and a few other sections.
Price: * * * * *
At 2.95 USD per issue and 14.95 USD for a 12 months subscription (6 issues) the pricing is another strength of WildJunket Magazine that makes it further appealing and worth including it between the favorite readings. Moreover, the magazine can be purchased with a single click and paid via Paypal.
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Overall, I am truly impressed. WildJunket Magazine is not fully mature yet but I’m sure it will become very soon as it is driven by a sound professional approach and a huge amount of passion. I can’t wait to read the Issue #2 in a couple of months!
Why not having a preview of the WildJunket Magazine and share with us your impressions?
Great review, Simon, I loved the magazine too
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That’s an impressive cover photo – one designed to reel you in and make you want to open the magazine. It sounds like one well worth reading. I have always enjoyed Nellie’s blog, and envied the design of her Wild Junket blog from the first day I laid eyes on it. I wish she and her husband great success, on a successful publishing career.
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Wow Simon thank you so much for such a well-written, thorough and unbiased review of our magazine! We’re thrilled beyond words to read your opinions and so glad you pointed out aspects that we could improve on as well. I totally agree with your suggestion on the interactive section, where readers can ask questions and interact with us. We actually plan on adding that in the next few issues, once we build up a stronger readership. You don’t know how much it means to me that you think our writing is the strongest point of the magazine – THAT is what I’d always been aiming for. A sincere thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
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