According to Norie Quintos, “the key to good magazine writing is storytelling.” Quintos entered the world of magazine when she became an editor for Caribbean Travel & Life magazine. She had pride for the magazine – for it showed more than just pretty photos of tourists lounging in the sand – it covered the culture of the islands. But the Caribbean magazine eventually closed and she moved to US News and World Report in Miami, FL as a writer. But her time was short. Soon after her move to US News, she moved again to become the editor of National Geographic Traveler. Having had careers in editing and writing, Quintos says, “It’s good to stretch yourself, but it’s also good to find your passion.” Editing was her passion, and she found that at Nat Geo Traveler.
When asked, “What makes a great story?” Quintos replied that each publication has a different voice. For example, the voice of Nat Geo Traveler is curious, intelligent, and not luxury. So when hiring, Quintos said she looks for writers with that type of voice. She strips out most adjectives and exclamation points in order to make her writing more straightforward, so she looks for writers who do that as well. She thinks many adjectives is a sign of lazy writing.
But the digital revolution is changing the way magazines operate. The voice of magazines differ whether they are in print or web. This is because the web audience is usually international or younger. For example, the iPad layout differs from print. In the iPad version of Nat Geo Traveler, there are no “deep” articles, and the scroll moves horizontally rather than vertically. This is to minimize scrolling and maximize attention, because one page in print is equal to about two to three pages on the iPad.
As the digital revolution exponentially grows, National Geographic Traveler can surely keep up. In fact, being a travel magazine, they were on of the first to send digital journalists to travel around the world and write in order to reiterate the relevance of magazines. To Quintos, travel writing is about life. And a good travel story is about what you learn while living. I think Quintos sums up the importance of magazine travel writing quite well when she left us with the quote, “You want to be in the world, but not of it.”