Bon Voyage   

Travel editors are embarking on new journeys.

THE SPATE OF BUYOUTS causes a seismic shift this summer in the travel departments at four of the nation's major newspapers: Three editors and one longtime writer take one-way tickets out the door.

"That is really an earthquake in our quiet little corner of journalism," writes Gary Warner , travel editor for the Orange County Register , in an e-mail to AJR. "These jobs are like peerages--people don't move very often."

Here's the manifest: John Macdonald , 61, travel editor of the Seattle Times for 19 years and known, Warner says, for successfully crusading to end the acceptance of freebies by many newspaper travel sections, including his own; the San Jose Mercury News' Zeke Wigglesworth , 60, also travel editor for 19 years; the New York Times' Betsy Wade , 72, author of the "Practical Traveler" column for 14 years; and the Boston Globe 's Jerry Morris , 64, travel editor for 12 years.

Macdonald, reached while he was sailing with wife Sally , the Times' recently retired religion writer, says he's known as a "stickler on the ethics." When his section won awards, being named one of the top three eight times in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, Macdonald would proselytize when talking to travel editors with less rigid standards by linking the awards to the Times' strict policy. His replacement, Terry Tazioli , 53, who spent 14 years editing the features section and a year in various newsroom jobs, says the shoes he has to fill are "enormous."

The Internet, says Wigglesworth, has had the single biggest impact on how consumers use travel sections. "Why wait for the Sunday edition?" he says, when you can find out about fares and destinations online. Although, he adds, some people still "just read the travel sections for entertainment." Michael Martinez , 49, who replaces Wigglesworth (though his title is travel writer, not editor, because of a reorganization) spent 28 years as a sportswriter before gradually shifting to the travel beat.

Morris, who began working at the Globe 35 years ago as a copy editor, says he got a good buyout offer at a time when the paper is preparing to launch a new, expanded travel section on October 7. "They told me they were going to bring new people in and I was probably not going to be involved," says Morris, who wrote the "Globe-Trotting" column, features on destinations and cruises, and automobile reviews. He's continuing the column as a freelancer.

Features on regional weekend destinations are becoming an important staple of travel offerings, at least partly, editors note, because demanding jobs mean people are taking less time off and, in an uncertain economy, may not want to spend as lavishly. Plus, for the papers, doing more closer to home keeps expenses down.

"We're sort of adjusting to our budget constraints," says the Merc's Martinez, "and trying to give the readership the types of stories that they might actually be able to use."