'Lonely Planet' has less than 24 hours to save its brand. Here's how to do it.

Link: Lonely Planet's bad trip | The Daily Telegraph.

THE Lonely Planet guidebook empire is reeling from claims by one of its authors that he plagiarised and made up large sections of his books and dealt drugs to make up for poor pay.

Thomas Kohnstamm also claims in a new book that he accepted free travel, in contravention of the company's policy.

His revelations have rocked the travel publisher, which sells more than six million guides a year.

So what do you do tonight if you are the publisher of the Lonely Planet series?

1. You spend tonight identifying every book by this author, and any others that might be suspect, and announce early on Monday that you are pulling them from the shelves.
2. You also announce a refund for outraged readers: Tear off the book cover, send it to this address, and we will refund your purchase.
3. You announce a new set of standards for vetting travel authors who contribute to your series, and reveal the pay structure for those writers.

You do not attack Thomas Kohnstamm. You do not express your own anger and outrage. You deny nothing. You put your ego on the back burner and you focus on saving the brand. (And you tell the lawyers to sit down and shut up if they urge you to go to war.)