Laurel Herman, president and CEO of Worth International Media, has been an integral part of travel publishing for over 45 years, and since 2001 has been managing Worth’s predominantly women-operated team.
Laurel Herman
In the dynamic world of travel publishing and fueled by her love of exploration and cultural exchange, Laurel Herman’s entire professional career has been at the forefront of the travel and meeting publishing industries.
Her career started after graduating from the University of Florida in the early ’70s when she joined Worth International Media Group, working in various capacities including being named Publisher/Editorial director of Recommend Florida in the early ’80s. From 1983 to 1990, Laurel grew Recommend by opening an office in New York City and hiring a talented team of writers and sales team members to build the brand into a global publication with worldwide destination coverage and advertisers.
The years in New York City illustrated Laurel’s visionary leadership and relentless drive to propel Recommend to new heights. With a keen focus on producing quality content and meeting the evolving needs of their audience, she ensured the brand remained at the forefront of the travel publishing landscape.
For the 5+ decades that Laurel has worked at Worth International Media, the company has been a leading voice in the travel, custom and meeting incentive publishing arena, crafting captivating content for the global travel and tourism industry sector.
As a predominantly women-operated team with a female CEO in a mostly male- dominated industry, Laurel remains committed to fostering an environment of support and empowerment for her staff, and as a small business, Worth International has capitalized on a unique opportunity to showcase the talented women who make up the Worth International family. But Worth also has made DEI and all of its principles a pillar of the company’s corporate culture.
Produced in both print and digital formats, Recommend, the company’s leisure travel brand, and Prevue, its meetings and incentives brand, are known for their distinctive designs and immersive editorial content, while maintaining reputations as both notable and trustworthy publications.
Recommend is a beacon for travel professionals seeking information on unforgettable experiences for their clients, while Prevue Meetings + Incentives, which Laurel launched in 2009, provides experiential destination content and invaluable insights and resources to meeting and incentive planners. Also, under her leadership, Prevue launched Visionary summits, which gives planners the opportunity to receive high level education on topics vital to their professions and that earn important CEU’s (Continuing Education Units). Both brands exemplify Worth International’s commitment to excellence in travel and meeting/incentive market publishing.
Laurel also launched a number of initiatives in Worth’s custom publishing division through the 1990s and 2000s that included in-room magazines for brands like Loews Hotel Corporation and Gaylord Hotels; the in-house magazine for Simon Malls; and the in-flight magazine for Spirit Airlines, Skylights.
Worth’s long and mutually rewarding relationship with Visit Florida—which began years ago with the Florida Visitors Guide, the Florida International Travel Planner and the state’s Official Meeting Planners Guide— and continues to this day, as Worth recently reached the milestone 25th year of publishing Undiscovered Florida ..
Under Laurel’s direction, Worth International’s long and varied forays into custom publishing products also included the Georgia Travel Industry Guide, the Sarasota Visitors Guide, the Universal Studios Travel Industry Guide and the Fort Lauderdale Meeting Planners Guide, not to mention a wide array of custom publishing projects for clients throughout Latin America, including the Official Mexico Meeting Planners Guide.
Under Laurel’s leadership, the company and its brands have maintained memberships with organizations such as ASTA, MPI, FICP, SITE, Visit Florida and EFTI.
Earlier in her career, Laurel served on the board of directors for SKAL, an international travel organization fostering friendships and travel as well as the Advertising Federation of Greater Miami, where she produced the organization’s newsletter. Laurel also published monthly newsletters for the Towns of Bay Harbor Islands and Bal Harbour.
Laurel Herman continues her love for travel and its transformative power of exploration and cultural exchange with ongoing travel assignments as President and Editorial Director of PREVUE Meetings + Incentives and Recommend as well as working with her full-time editorial team and a bevy of dedicated and talented freelancers.
