How One Travel Newsletter Confronted the Pandemic and Changed Its Narrative
Photo Credit: The Statesider newsletter has had to rethink its approach to travel storytelling since the start of the pandemic. Statesider
Skift Take
Much has been made about how the pandemic has affected so many travel businesses. But what about travel media? Interviews with the creators of one travel newsletter reveal the larger dilemma of when to encourage travel, and when you do the complete opposite.
Travel media outlets have published no shortage of stories in the last year about how Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on countless destinations, hotels, tour operators, and more. The collective billions of dollars companies in the tourism industry have lost due to the pandemic will be felt for years to come. But people are still obviously traveling, so that raises a very important question: How do media outlets tell travel stories in the midst of the pandemic and now through the uneasiness of reopenings?
One publication grappling with that question is The Statesider.
Created by writers Pam Mandel and Andy Murdock, the online newsletter has provided a voice for U.S. consumer travel media that Mandel noted tells stories that “say something about broader American issues and identity." One example of its unique approach to storytelling: the profound experience the visually impaired, Uruguayan-born writer Milagros Costabel enjoyed at a Florida Walmart.
Since its launch in 2019, The St
