New York Times: Fitness Magazine Explosion

FITNESS MAGAZINE EXPLOSION
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: June 15, 1985


If it involves moving a muscle, there is probably a magazine for it.

Five years ago, there were only a handful of health and fitness publications. Today, a weightlifter might have trouble lifting them all at once.

''There's been a grass-roots revolution in health and fitness, and the information is following that,'' said Owen Lipstein, publisher of American Health, a monthly magazine founded three and a half years ago. ''There's a lot of activity in the field, a lot of start-ups.''

The titles range from health-oriented magazines, such as American Health; Prevention, and Health, which offer advice on everything from nutrition to muscle tone, to those with a more general readership, such as Self, which now carry more features on fitness.

But the most visible development has been the introduction of dozens of small publications aimed at readers with specific exercise interests. For women, in particular, there sometimes seems to be more magazines on newsstands designed to keep them trim than there are aerobics classes in Manhattan.

Many Entrepreneurs

Many of the publications come and go so quickly that it is hard to say just how many there are, Some are started by big, well-established publishers, such as Rodale Press. But many more are one-shot efforts, started by hopeful entrepreneurs with limited funds from their own pockets and those of friends and relatives. Most have small circulations and limited advertising.

The publications generally contain a mix of articles about exercise techniques, nutrition and health information; reviews of the latest exercise gear, and interviews with celebrities and athletes about their workouts. Editorial quality varies from magazine to magazine. Most are slickly illustrated; Exercise for Men Only even contains a fold-out poster of a muscular young man, presumably to show its readers what they could look like if they keep up the workouts.

''You wonder if the only difference between them is the celebrity on the cover,'' said Leo Scullin, a senior vice president at Young & Rubicam, the advertising agency. ''Do you want to watch Heather Locklear working out, or Victoria Principal or Linda Evans?''

'Fly-by-Night Information'

''There have been a lot of publishers sticking their toes in the water, and there's a lot of fly-by-night information from people who don't know what they're talking about,'' said Judy Jones, editor of New Body, which was founded in 1982. ''A lot of them aren't around anymore.''

For the smaller publications, especially, the major problem is attracting advertisers. Some of the more successful ones have been able to attract food, fashion and cosmetics advertising; the current issue of New Body, for example, contains ads for Max Factor makeup and General Foods' Crystal Light diet drink mix. But others feature ads for little more than mail-order vitamins and exercise gear - products sometimes manufactured by the same company that publishes the magazine.

''From an advertiser's standpoint, the audiences are often quite attractive, but the editorial isn't compatible,'' Mr. Scullin said. ''How do you tie in Jell-O to triathlon sports? The smaller the circulation and the more esoteric the subject matter, the more difficult it is to convince advertisers that there's something in it for them.''

However, Mr. Scullin added, ''National advertisers aren't paying much attention to them, but readers are.''

An example is Shape, which was founded in 1981 and is one of four monthlies published by Joe Weider, a former body building champion. Edited for women who are interested in aerobics and other exercise, Shape's circulation has jumped to 550,000 from about 300,000 a year ago, with two-thirds of those sales coming from the newsstand. Its typical reader, according to the publishing company, is a single female who is just under 28 years old, is college educated and makes more than $30,000 a year.

98-Pound Weakling

Shape, like many other magazines in the field, has had to struggle to overcome the perception that it is a 98-pound weakling when it comes to advertisers. Only recently, as its circulation has increased and more attention has been focused on the field, have major, national advertisers, including American Express, Chrysler and Plymouth, joined the exercise equipment ads in its pages. ''They're realizing that we have a good publication, with readers that go out and buy as well as work out,'' said Dietrich Nelson, a spokesman for Shape.

Exercise for Men Only, a bi-monthly that published its first issue in January, has not yet reached that point. ''Advertisers are a little skeptical,'' acknowledged Cheh Nam Low, who owns the magazine and is its publisher and editor in chief. ''It's difficult because they're wondering if this magazine is going to stay around, or whether it's fly-by-night.''

With a circulation of about 120,000 and about 11 pages of advertising in its current 104-page issue, Exercise for Men Only is losing money, Mr. Low said. But he hopes that circulation by the end of the year will increase to 250,000, and that ad pages will also increase. ''If we're lucky, we can be break-even in a year,'' said Mr. Low, who is financing the magazine himself.

Magazines in this field also face a credibility problem when it comes to the accuracy and quality of the medical, nutrition and exercise advice they give. The American Council on Science and Health, a consumer education research organization, concluded last year that about one-third of the 30 magazines it surveyed contained articles on health that were less than completely accurate.

Bending Over Backwards

Publishers attack the study as being unscientific and poorly researched, but acknowledge that they must bend over backward to insure that readers are getting safe, reliable information. Many of them enlist the aid of medical experts to review their editorial material.

''The easiest way to cut your throat is to publish inadequately documented research or to change the research to fit your needs,'' said Tracy Lynn, executive editor of Superfit, a Rodale Press magazine that published its first issue this month. But, she adds, ''There has got to be room for well-documented research of a controversial nature.''

Superfit, which aims to give readers the most up-to-date information on training techniques, health and nutrition, had an article in its first issue that suggested that high-fat diets might be better for endurance athletes than low-fat diets - a turnaround in traditional thinking on the subject. The article said, though, that such a diet ''could lead to health problems and bad dietary habits in the long run.''

''We don't suggest that people switch to a high-fat diet,'' Miss Lynn said, ''but we want to let them know what's happening at the cutting edge of the nutrition field.''

Whether or not the magazines can increase their credibility, their sheer numbers seem likely to spell trouble for some.

''There's got to be some kind of shakeout coming,'' said John Suhler, president of Veronis Suhler & Associates, an investment banking firm specializing in media properties. ''On the fitness side especially, there are too many of them, and they all look too much alike.''

Graph of burgeoning fitness market magazines; Photos of magazines aimed at health reader (Gene Maggio)