BBC Magazines launched Lonely Planet magazines last week in the UK. It will be interesting to see if this joins other BBC megabrands such as Top Gear and Good Food and pursues an Australian edition – the BBC took control of Lonely Planet last year. The launch of the Australian edition of Top Gear has brought welcome interest to the motoring category. Th travel magazine category could do with some help.
Two rival UK publishers have complained that the publicly funded BBC is unfairly using its government ownership against competitors. The Press Gazette has more on this. This is not dissimilar to my argument about Government owned Australia Post shops here in Australia.