Worldwide wait for Ronay's new guide

Food critic Egon Ronay is pressing ahead with plans to publish his flagship hotels and restaurants guide on the Internet - but he still does not know when it will appear.

"I'm ready to go. I've got all my plans worked out - the strategy, the design of the Web site - but there are important financial matters to be sorted out," he said.

Ronay won back the right to publish the guide in October 1997 after gaining a compulsory winding-up order in the High Court against Leading Guides International, which had produced it under licence since 1996.

He had hoped to start the title again in March 1998, but now says nothing will appear for at least another two months.

The problem, he added, was that unlike paper guides an Internet site would need to be constantly updated, making it expensive to produce because more inspections of hotels and restaurants would be needed. When consumers can call up the Internet on digital TV, the project will become more viable, he said.

"The time of paper guides is fast running down," claimed Ronay. "When you publish a paper guide it immediately starts getting out of date. The research is at the very least three to four months old. With the Internet, what you publish has to be upto date."

Ronay continues to publish his booklet guide to eating at seven British airports run by BAA. And plans for a guide to transport cafés are still in hand, but it is proving difficult to draw up a list of establishments to inspect.