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On the newsstand, travel magazines have always reflected a world of luxury and privilege, an instant passport to seaside and mountain retreats where comfort is paramount and price barely an afterthought.
Not anymore.
Here, with his calculator and currency charts, comes Arthur Frommer, the 68-year-old travel guru for the masses. Since its debut in January, his Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel has shaken up the category. Unafraid to talk price, even on the cover, the title showcases the reality of vacation planning that its competitors are usually loath to touch. Articles trumpet "40 Best Bargain Vacations" and "The Cheapest Places on Earth."
The approach is striking a chord. Newsstand sales of the first issue reached 65,000, well outpacing Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler and National Geographic Traveler, upscale titles whose circulations are largely subscription-based.
The new title, a quarterly, has attracted some of the advertisers that frequent the big books, including Virgin Atlantic and General Motors. It has also been successful converting advertisers that usually buy space in newspapers and on television, including Carnival Cruise Lines.
"The greatest puzzle in American journalism is that no one put a magazine like this out before," says Mr. Frommer, who became famous when he published Europe on $5 a Day in 1956.
But conventional wisdom in the magazine business says that travel books...