Celebrating 90 Years of WHERE Magazine and Why Print Is Flourishing
- lisahylton2
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
In a world overflowing with information, travellers are choosing something reassuring: a printed page they can trust. Chris Johnson reports...
Visitors arrive in London carrying many things: suitcases, expectations, bookmarked lists and a growing sense of information overload. Before they have even left the airport, they have already been offered a thousand “must-see” lists and algorithmically driven itineraries. By the time they reach their hotel, many are asking a simpler question: what do I trust?
At The Tourism Media Group (TMG) we see the answer every day in hotel lobbies, Concierge desks and visitor centres across the city. Visitors reach for print.
A Break from the Scroll
After twenty-five years editing travel magazines, I have watched the media landscape transform repeatedly. Yet demand for our publications has never been stronger, not despite the digital age, but because of it.
Travel is a break from routine. Visitors don’t want to scroll London; they want to experience it. Increasingly, every generation is looking up from their phones rather than down at them. They want guidance without noise and recommendations that feel considered rather than computed.
Print offers something quietly powerful: the ability to slow down. A magazine on a bedside table does not compete for attention. A map waits until it is needed. When print is picked up, it offers focus. In a culture where attention is constantly fragmented, that focus is a luxury.
Trust in a Human Voice
Artificial intelligence has expanded access to information, but it has also blurred the lines of authority. When everything sounds certain, visitors gravitate towards sources that feel human. They sense when content has been generated rather than lived. And in an unfamiliar city, lived experience matters.
Print carries accountability. Someone chose these words. Someone stood behind these recommendations. Editorial judgement is visible on every page.
At The Tourism Media Group, our content is curated by specialists with decades of experience across museums and galleries, dining, theatre, shopping and sport. These are editors who know which exhibitions reward the journey, which kitchens are cooking with purpose and which performances truly deliver. Visitors are not looking for artificial intelligence; they are looking for authentic intelligence.
"Increasingly, every generation is looking up from their phones rather than down at them" (Chris Johnson)
The Power of the Physical
There is a distinctly human pleasure in the weight and physicality of print. Print is the vinyl of travel media: textured, present and purposeful. Digital offers endless convenience; print offers meaning.
And print lingers. Magazines are folded and passed on. Maps are annotated, refolded and kept as mementos. Digital content disappears the moment a tab closes. Print remains part of the journey and part of the memory.
It is also more sustainable than many assume. Digital media carries a vast, often invisible carbon footprint, from data centres to devices and continuous streaming. A responsibly produced magazine, shared by multiple readers over its lifespan, compares favourably.
Demand That Speaks for Itself
The clearest evidence is behavioural. Demand for WHERE London Magazine, WHERE London Maps and London PLANNER continues to outstrip supply. Every week, Concierge, visitor centres, transport hubs and attractions, request additional copies.
Our recent launch of Starring GREAT Britain, in partnership with VisitBritain, saw demand far exceed supply. Hotels wanted it. Visitors asked for it. Distributors called for more. These are not nostalgic gestures. They are active choices made by modern travellers, a highly engaged audience actively seeking experiences.
For partners and advertisers, that engagement matters. A visitor holding a printed guide is already in decision-making mode. They are not passively scrolling; they are actively planning what to do next.
A Shared Language of Recommendation
WHERE magazines have been published since 1936. Through wars, recessions and technological revolutions, one need has remained constant: helping visitors understand where they are and what to do next. As information multiplies, the value of clear guidance only increases.
It is no coincidence that this anniversary sits comfortably alongside our celebration of concierges. Both understand that the best directions come from people who truly know a place. Together, they form a powerful ecosystem that connects visitors directly with the experiences that define a destination.
Ninety years on, WHERE Magazine is
flourishing because travel is human. And as long as visitors keep arriving and asking where they should go next, print will remain exactly where it belongs: in their hands.
Chris Johnson is co-founder and content director of The Tourism Media Group, publisher of WHERE London Magazine, WHERE London Maps, London PLANNER, Concierge News, The Lowdown and Starring GREAT Britain.
