Interval International publishes more than a dozen magazines in multiple languages for its global vacation owner member base. The North America edition is Interval’s flagship publication. All content promotes the company’s offerings and educates members on their benefits. Members love the magazine; according to the latest publication survey, 86% are familiar with the magazine, and of that 86%, 72% say it is valuable to their membership. Early in my tenure with Interval, I was the editor-in-chief; later, when I became VP of creative services, I served as executive editor.

Interval introduced a digital magazine in 2020. As was the case with our print magazine, the mission was to educate, entertain, and engage our members. The Interval Explorer also allowed us to do things we couldn’t do in print—create content that members could interact with and leverage video. The digital magazine also gave us the opportunity to communicate with members more frequently and cut print costs. I developed the concept and story ideas. All copy was written in-house, and the design was developed by our senior designer and creative director with the use of Ceros, a software platform that allows the user to develop digital content with no IT coding.

Interval International publishes this trade magazine, which is part dispassionate chronicler of the vacation ownership industry and the broader hospitality sector, and part house organ promoting the products and services that Interval provides to its resort developer clients and members.

In 2020, Interval International introduced a digital complement to its long-running trade magazine of the same name. The digital launch allowed us to print less frequently during the pandemic and conserve cash, while communicating more frequently with our audience. All copy was written in-house by the editorial team, and the design was developed by our senior designer and creative director with the use of Ceros.

For roughly 30 years, Interval produced an annual Resort Directory—descriptions of affiliated resorts organized by region. At one time, it was a powerful point-of-sale tool. Resort salespeople would show prospective timeshare buyers the book, demonstrating the value proposition of vacation ownership. But the book fell out of favor with our clients who distributed it at point of sale, and our sales team requested a new book with more editorial content. My team and I got to work and produced the Travel Planner from scratch within a year—on top of our regular workload. It’s an Interval-specific guidebook structured around Interval’s proprietary Travel Demand Index. I developed the concept, secured buy-in from all corners of the business, and provided direction to the writers, designers, and photo editor.

For more detail, see below.

This 76-page publication serves as a guide to Interval International membership, complete with how-tos, testimonials from fellow members, and new resorts that demonstrate growth in the company’s global network. For this project, I worked closely with our creative director, photo editor, editor, and associate editor, providing direction on structure, content, and voice.

Each of the 100+ geographical features is structured around Interval’s proprietary Travel Demand Index, a week-by-week valuation of area demand that helps members determine when the best opportunities are likely to be available. Seasonal content, essential activities, and testimonials from Interval’s members-only Community forum open the larger features.

Utilitarian and transactional, the Travel Planner’s content includes kids’ activities, day trips, alternative destinations, tips for using member benefits in the area, and detailed maps — all with the aim of helping members plan their next vacation through Interval.

Tha main holdover from the now-defunct Resort Directory, the resort features section includes resort name and location, descriptions, on-site amenities, and sleeping capacities. Additional information to aid in vacation planning includes the Interval HD icon, indicating that a video for the resort can be found at intervalworld.com, and a QR code that takes the reader to the online Directory.