The Travelling Companion
 | |
| Categories | Travel magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Total circulation (2020) | 5 million |
| Founder | Carmen Dell'Orefice |
| Year founded | 1961 |
| Company | Angelia Editore SàRL |
| Country |  Gylias |
| Based in | Narona, Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk |
| Language | |
| Website | http://www.travellingcompanion.gls/ |
The Travelling Companion is a Gylian travel magazine, founded in 1961. It is famous for its high-quality photography and illustrations, and has been humorously called "the house organ of aristerokratia".
History
The Travelling Companion was founded by Carmen Dell'Orefice in late 1961. Its ethos was shaped by the contemporary context, with the National Obligation period reaching its end, rationing only recently abolished, and Gyliair still establishing itself.
It took its name from Augustus Egg's painting The Travelling Companions — a silkscreened copy of which was used in its logo.
The magazine quickly rose to national success, attracting readers with its cosmopolitan outlook, high production values, and ambition. In an era when travel for leisure was in its infancy, The Travelling Companion secured contributions from famous writers and photographers, both established and burgeoning, and used well-known models for its photo shoots abroad.
During the Golden Revolution, The Travelling Companion was one of Gylias' most successful magazines, with a circuation of 2–3 million. Sima Daián commented that it, together with L'Petit Écho and Silhouette, best captured the ideal of aristerokratia, serving as an inclusive and egalitarian equivalent of a café society or jet set for ordinary Gylians.
It went through a difficult period in the wretched decade, in which it reduced its size to cope with declining circulation.
The Travelling Companion rebounded in the 1990s, buoyed by renewed economic growth, national optimism, and a second Gylian Invasion. It switched to digital printing, restored its dynamism thanks to an influx of new contributors, and embraced the internet in Gylias — digitising its archives through BiblioNet and beginning to publish exclusive features on its website. Its online presence also helped grow its international audience.
It also grew more politicised in the 1990s, aligning itself with the environmental movement and adopting an explicit social agenda promoting sustainable tourism.
Ownership and organisation
The Travelling Companion is owned and published by Angelia Editore, legally constituted as an SàRL. Its headquarters are in Narona, Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk. Its parent company is named after Hermes' daughter Angelia.
The magazine has a 5-member Management Board and a 10-member Supervisory Board, elected yearly.
The magazine's revenue comes from newsagent's sales, paid subscriptions, online orders, and donations. Donors are listed at the end of each issue. It does not accept advertising.
Content and style
The Travelling Companion publishes features mainly focused around travel and leisure. It is known for its photo essays and its glossy black covers, memorably likened by Annemarie Beaulieu to "a slab of printed dark chocolate".
It is written in English, French, and Italian. Its trademark conversational, New Journalism-influenced writing style emerged out of Carmen's habit of tape recording herself and then editing the results into articles.
Well-known features include "Urban Access", a compendium of one-, three-, and five-hour adventures in cities, and its annual survey of most livable cities, based on quality of life.
The magazine is unique among Tyranian travel magazines for its explicitly leftist and egalitarian viewpoint, reflecting the ethos of aristerokratia and the impact of Gylias' environmental movement. One of its humorous slogans since the 1990s is "We travel so you don't have to". It has published features attacking the threat of development to nature reserves, labour abuses in the tourism industry, and global inequality. It is notable for emphasising high speed rail and public transport over aviation.
Contributors
Notable contributors have included Annemarie Beaulieu, Vivian Mayer, Maija Džeriņa, Estelle Labarde, Ser Şanorin, Sima Daián, Ludmila Canaşvili, Eleanor Henderson, Susan Wallace, and Helen Wilkinson.
Notable models featured in the magazine have included Carmen Dell'Orefice, Isabel Longstowe, Amanda Leloup, Carla Miló, Charlotte Böttcher, Samantha Thompson, Jane Russell, Máiréad Ní Conmara, Sara Thomas, Aishwarya Devi, and Miranda Belloni.
Influence
The Travelling Companion is one of Gylias' best-known travel magazines, with a notable impact on pop culture.
The magazine is an iconic representative of socialised luxury, and is known as a leading publication for georgette audiences. For its international readership, it is a "quintessentially Gylian" magazine, typifying the fusion of radical egalitarianism and sophisticated style associated with Gylias.