DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704040680

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MANTEO, N.C.                      LENGTH:   41 lines

LANDMARK BUYS TRAVEL GUIDE FIRM

Landmark Communications Inc. has purchased The Insiders' Guides Inc., a publisher of travel books.

Terms of the purchase by Norfolk-based Landmark, parent company of The Virginian-Pilot, weren't disclosed. Michael McOwen, Insiders' president, said Landmark plans to aggressively expand the company's 45-title guidebook series.

As many as 75 additional titles are planned by the end of the century.

``Our intention all along has been to grow this series nationally and cover all the major travel destinations in North America,'' McOwen said Thursday.

He and his wife, Beth Storie, Insiders' publisher, will remain in their current positions. The company will retain its headquarters in Manteo and be renamed Insiders' Publishing Inc.

McOwen said he and Storie were attracted to Landmark in part because it already is a national player in the publication of niche guides, with a chain of antiques and collectibles magazines and books. Landmark's increasing emphasis on Internet publishing dovetails with Insiders' plans to more fully develop online versions of its print guides.

Frank Batten Jr., Landmark executive vice president, said: ``We are delighted to have a fast-growing, entrepreneurial company like Insiders' Publishing as part of Landmark.''

Insiders' roots go back to 1981, when McOwen, then an ad-agency owner, was approached by the then-publisher of an Outer Banks guidebook about taking over the guide. He agreed and, by 1990, he and Storie were compiling guides to Raleigh, Charlotte, Hampton Roads and Orlando, Fla.

Their company ran into financial troubles, however, and was dissolved. With new investors, McOwen and Storie re-emerged in the early 1990s and, despite a few setbacks, have expanded the operation. Insiders' sold about 200,000 copies of its books last year, and posted revenues of about $2 million, McOwen said. It has 25 employees. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

The Insiders' Guides Inc. publishes a 45-title guidebook series,

including books on the Chesapeake Bay and Civil War sites.

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