Economy: Positive Earnings at Health Sports Clubs

As the economy (and news of the economy) glooms like a bad hangover, there's at least one report of good news within the fitness industry.

A recent survey found that 18 leading United States health and sports clubs had a good start this year with plenty of green in the quarter ending March 31, according to Industry Insights, Inc. The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) reported the findings today.

The surveyed companies reported an average 15 percent increase to $17.5 million growth in the first quarter of 2008, according to IHRSA's index. Among other gains, non-dues revenues grew by 17.5 percent to $5.5 million; same-store revenue for those in operation for at least two years grew by an average 2.9 percent to $6.5 million.

This might be a great example of the phrase, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Re-certification: CEU via E-mail.

So I'm getting word that our new CEU will be delivered via e-mail to all fitness professionals. How AFAA plans to do that is beyond my pay rate. But it sounds like a good idea.

Because fitness professionals often have to be re-certified after some time, they look for ways to save money and get their education in tip-top shape. And a lot of people (I don't know the exact figures) do seem to like the concept of reading a research article and taking a short exam for just a few units. And for $25, that's a save.

That's the equivalent of me taking a $25 one-unit class editing class at a community college. If it's going to make me a better editor, it's worth the time and money.

Why Personal Trainers look for American Fitness

That's the question I asked when I began working at AF.

And sure enough there were many answers: It's the articles. It's the glossy pages. It's the celebrity cover stories--Jennifer Love Hewitt, John Schneider, Kristi Yamaguchi, etc. And finally, it's the CEU Corner.

CEU--an acronym for Continuing Education Unit--is what fitness professionals are required to earn (about 15, my guess) to RE-certify. That's, of course, if they want to continue their career in fitness. But alas, CEUs are not easy to get. Historically, AF has offered only 2 measly CEUs from its CEU Corner article. Every article (which is heavy on research) is followed by an exam that must be submitted so the person may earn those two units.

But soon, I hear, we'll be adding more CEUs to the magazine. That is, we'll be adding another CEU or making the current one longer so that each magazine will carry more CEUs to earn. I guess we won't know until the details are ironed out.

I'll keep you posted.

Magazine cover design for fall

We got a peek of the Sept/Oct 2008 cover and inside layout of AF yesterday. The designers at Barbara Brown Marketing & Design (BBMD) did a great job.

As part of the process to put together a magazine, designers have to spend a lot of time putting together the pieces that make the magazine look nice: the colors, the fonts, the images, the layout of the text, etc. It's not an easy task.

During the last few weeks before the magazine is printed, we often have to work with the designers on a regular (almost daily) basis to make sure we eliminate all the blemishes--typos, misplaced images, bad pagination. Sometimes we must cut something out at the last minute, which gives us a different layout than the one we see in the beginning.

So rest assured that what we saw yesterday may somewhere along the next two months change, hopefully for the better.

Mark Consuelos lands on American Fitness

Our September/October 2008 edition went to the designers about a month ago and we should be getting a preview of the cover in a few days.

That's always something exciting because we don't always know what to expect. Sometimes we must make last-minute changes to photos, articles and pagination. Our managing editor, Kevin, has the difficult task to make these make-it-or-break-it decisions.

This time, our cover "guy" Mark Consuelos (Kelly Ripa's second half), hasn't presented any issues. He's coming out in a new Hallmark movie, "For the Love of Grace," and a TV show called "Husband for Hire." We've yet to see what the inside pages of the Sept./Oct. edition look like.

I'll keep you posted on the details.

Top Stories of the summer: Kristi Yamaguchi, Beijing Olympics

It's a great pleasure to debut this blog with the announcement of our July/August 2008 print edition. We began production back in February and March. And as with most of our editions, it took some unexpected turns, which included Kristi Yamaguchi's victory on ABC's reality TV show "Dancing with the Stars."

How we even got Kristi as our cover "girl" for this edition is another story. But we got her knowing she was in the TV show as it launched its sixth season. But because the process of putting the magazine together is so laborious and takes a long time, we were expecting the magazine to come out after the season was over--after a "star" was crowned.

Nonetheless, I remember the night she won. All of us editors called each others' cell phones, saying how we needed to change the wording of her article. At the time, the story just made reference to her appearing on the show. The new change included the fact that she won.

By that time, the magazine was already on the hands of our designers. It took just a phone call to make the changes.

We are pleased with the results and we are happy for Kristi.