Now arriving: Departful, an independent, online travel magazine that launched today.
Run by a young team in Toronto, the site aims to source from readers contributing travel news, stories, and advice, with content from more than 100 countries.
Some of the content is inevitable, such as a description of what Oktoberfest in Munich is like. Some of it is more surprising, such as an award-winning travel video of 24 countries in time-lapse.
UPDATE 29 August: Co-founder JP Bervoets clarifies that Departful is a ‘passion project’ right now.
In a sign of the times, the site is optimized for mobile devices.
But content aimed at young (read: not having much disposable income) leisure travelers (read: not having business expense accounts) is a tough market to crack. Vice, and Off-Track Planet are leaders, with the blog Gadling and the iPad-only magazines Travel by Handstand and TRVL also competitive.
But the site has a savvy voice, and Canada is desperately short of home-grown travel content, with Carte Postale\ one of the few recent attempts.
Wishing Departful luck!
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Looks nice at a glance, though the site is rather slow — switching tabs causes a noticeable pause. Of course there’s not much content yet in some sections, but the style is fine for what there is.
But in addition to being yet another ugly corrupted-word-name of the usual terrible sort, “Departful” has bad connotations. Departful -> Departed -> Dead and gone. That name would be better for an undertakers’ trade journal…. I’d advise a name change as soon as possible. Maybe even a name using real words, though I realize that’s a radical concept, and not one the editors of *this* particular splendid travel news website would ever consider — I kid, I kid.
Hi, Laurence,
Thanks for your comment.
Best,
Sean