Matador / Brave New Traveler Merger Announcement!

Last winter found me sitting under a mango tree in a WiFi equipped garden café on the Cambodian coast. I opened my trusty Mac Powerbook, which had just survived a month-long traverse of the Cambodian frontier islands, and got ready to take on a mountain of e-mail from concerned friends and frantic relatives.

That was the day I discovered MatadorTravel.com. Not coincidentally, it was also the day that launched my travel writing career onto the twisting path from dream to reality.

One year later, I’m sitting shirtless in a meadow in the Patagonian Andes, on assignment for Fodor’s Travel Guides – a job I found through Matador. Even more exciting, I’m announcing a new partnership:

The scrappy online travel magazine Brave New Traveler and Matador are merging, and the future shines so bright it hurts my eyes.

……

Ian MacKenzie, the Creative Canadian who founded BNT, asked me to help him edit the magazine over dinner in Montreal last fall – the night before I left on a quixotic attempt to ride my folding bicycle to Halifax.

“Um, I’d love to,” I said. “But I’m going to be sleeping in my tent on the side of the road these next few months.”

“No worries, eh,” said Ian. “I’m almost always traveling too.”

And somehow, over the next few months, from public libraries deep in French Canada and coffee shops in Vancouver, the Brave New Traveler team of 2 editors, 1 advertising manager and a wonderful group of readers and contributors built BNT into a successful independent online travel magazine. Yesterday we posted a video celebrating 1,000 RSS subscribers.

……

I’m excited that Brave New Traveler and Matador are joining together, but more importantly I’m excited that people are joining together.

Matador and BNT are not just a motley collection of articles, travel stories, destination guides, internet forums and social networks. They are communities of passionate travelers – thousands of us, brought together from the far corners of the world into one space, one global campfire where we are able to have a conversation.

Who reads Brave New Traveler? Who makes a profile on Matador?

How about the wandering Buddhist photographer documenting the frantic capitalism consuming China, who knows the mountains of Hokkaido like the back of his hand?

Or the self-reliant permaculture activist from West Virginia who is starting an NGO in West Bengal?

Or the documentary filmmaker in Nepal, or the woman traversing Central America in a vintage trailer decked out with solar panels, or the dude who just opened a youth hostel on the beach in Uruguay, or the unfortunate backpacker in Chiang Mai who had her passport stolen.

Heck, our Editor was living in a tent and eating beans and rice over campfires in front of a surf-break on the coast of Baja two years ago.

I’m a technology skeptic. I believe people need to live in the real world, using the Internet as a tool to enhance their real lives, not as a virtual substitute for life experience.

But wow – what a fantastic tool Matador is poised to become. Thousands of us – artists, writers, activists, travelers, parents, athletes, visionaries, hobos, lawyers and fools – all connected, all brought together to open a conversation that stretches from Manhattan to Cape Town to a mountain cottage overlooking Kathmandu.

Matador gives us the tools to reach out to each other, to lend support, to share contacts, to help each other make our dreams come true.  It's not about building an online persona, but about connecting with people in the real world, building a global network of friends, sharing inspiring stories and collaborating on projects that are going to make the world a better place. 

Going to Berlin? Get some tips from an expert on the local music scene. Studying abroad in Mexico City? Talk to Julie.  Thinking about exploring Nigeria?  Lola would love to tell you about her country. Visiting Patagonia? Come and say hi to me !

Making this online community live up to its potential is as simple as saying hello. So let’s share our moments of beauty, our hard questions, our fears, our goals, our connections, our writing and our hope.

Here's what you can do to get the most out of Matador:

• Start blogging! You don't have to be away from home; tell us what the view is like out your window.
• Participate in a forum discussion
• Write for us !  Unlike many websites, we pay our contributors.
• Subscribe via RSS to our content Feeds
• Email the Editorial Team with your suggestions

We look forward to hearing from you.

--Tim Patterson, Patagonia, 1-30-2007