BBC buys Lonely Planet - The Future of Guidbook content

Some may be surprised by the acquisition of Lonely Planet by the BBC. Why would a traditional media giant want travel destination content? What does this mean for the future of guidebooks? There are a number of ways to look at this purchase. Combining Lonely Planet content with BBC video such as Michael Palin's travel series seems an obvious step, but I believe there is more to this transaction. Large media giants such as BBC are challenged by the growth of the Web which is clearly steeling viewers from the traditional broadcast television medium. The BBC is not blind to this trend and has created some interesting user interfaces on the Web. In specific, the BBC has a very creative interactive time line that allows users to drill down to find out information about specific time periods in British History. Rather than offering the user simple historical text, the BBC history time line allows the user to select information that is of particular interest to fit their needs and drill down to the appropriate detail. Applying this approach to Lonely Planet information would be very logical and enable better navigation of the content. With the growth of user generated content and BBC's control over massive libraries of video content, the BBC could use the Lonely Planet acquisition to drive a new model in the market that combines all three of these sources into an interactive display allowing users more flexibility. The integration of multiple sources of content is a natural evolutionary step in destination information and I am hopeful the BBC will use this opportunity to drive a new model in the market.