Planet Fitness has a new employee handling its public relations, and he’s a name you might recognize.

John Craig, editor of the now-defunct Fitness Business News, came to Planet Fitness about two weeks ago. John and FBN and our magazine became direct competitors when FBN was launched early last year. John, formerly of the Boston Globe, and I share a bond of being former newspaper men. (Don’t get me started about the cuts being made in the newspaper industry these days). It was always good to see John at trade shows a couple of times a year, and it was good to hear his voice when he called me today.

There’s mixed feelings, of course, when a competitor like FBN, which ceased operations last month, goes away or is somehow eliminated. You’re excited about the opportunity to get more stories and have more people read your stuff. But competition is good because it keeps you on your toes. There’s nothing like the highs of beating the competition on a story or the lows of getting beat on a story.

You worry about people losing their jobs when you hear about a publication ceasing operations, especially in these troubling times. Fortunately, John has landed on his feet, and so, too, has FBN managing editor Brian Davidson, who John says is working at another magazine within the company that owned FBN.

The good thing for John is that he gets to drive 10 minutes to work now as opposed to about an hour to his old job. With gas prices the way they are, that’s definitely a company perk. –Stuart

Today, I was finally able to meet Dr. Kenneth Cooper, founder of the Cooper Institute and coiner of the term “aerobics.” OK, I didn’t actually meet him in person as I hoped I would when I went to Dallas in February. Instead, I met him as journalists often meet the people they interview–over the phone.

I had set up the interview several weeks ago, since this busy man’s schedule was quickly filling up for the month of July, and I needed to interview him for a profile about him that I’m writing for our September issue. He is, after all, the recipient of our Lifetime Achievement Award this year at the Club Industry show in October and the keynote speaker at the trade show.

I have to say that he’s a man excited about what he does. And today, he was especially excited as yesterday he’d participated in a press conference about the results of physical fitness testing done on more than 2.5 million school children in Texas. The physical fitness test used was Fitnessgram, a program that he helped develop, and that he helped fund with his own money and private donations to get into Texas schools. The results of the testing weren’t good. We’ll be offering more details on the results on our site soon.

However, the release of the results yesterday helped prove the sorry state of children’s physical fitness in Texas, and that, he indicated to me, may help the state, schools and parents work together to change the situation. He was also excited because at least another 14 states have been in contact with him about implementing the testing in their states.

Dr. Cooper told me that he sees improving the fitness level of children in this country as his mission now. In fact, he even said that he doesn’t think that he will be remembered for coining the term “aerobics” as much as he will be for helping to turn the tide of the obesity epidemic in children.

For more of what Dr. Cooper said, watch for the profile on him to appear in our September issue. –Pam

Here‘s a quick update on a couple of Iowa fitness facilities that we reported on Wednesday concerning the floods in that state:

An employee at the River Plaza Athletic Club in Waterloo, IA, said today that they‘re still trying to pump water out of the club. The hope is that the club will re-open on Monday, or at least parts of the club, the employee said.

There was also a voluntary evacuation for much of downtown Des Moines, IA, and other areas bordering the Des Moines River this afternoon, the Associated Press reports. Several clubs and a YMCA are located there.

Perhaps the hardest hit town today is Cedar Rapids, IA. The AP reports that rising water from the Cedar River forced the evacuation of a downtown hospital, and residents of more than 3,000 homes fled for higher ground. A railroad bridge collapsed, and 400 city blocks are under water.

The Rockwell Collins Recreation Center in Cedar Rapids is still open, but showers are closed because of the city‘s request for limited water use, and there is no towel service, according to Ian Sizer, the front desk supervisor at Rockwell Collins. The gymnasium and running track were closed off in the club and will be used as an American Red Cross shelter for people displaced by the flood, he says. Classes are closed as well.

Dave Koch, a spokesman for the Cedar Rapids fire department, told the AP that the river will crest today at about 31.8 feet. It was at 30.9 feet early in the morning. In a 1993 flood, considered the worst flood in recent history, the river was at 19.27 feet, the AP reports.

In other words, compared to the flood of ‘93, this year‘s flood “blows it away,” Sizer says. -Stuart

Yesterday, Jennipher Shaver and I called a bunch of fitness facilities in Iowa in an attempt to find out how the recent flooding in that state has affected their businesses. In just a small sample of calls, we found out that a lot of places, from for-profit facilities to YMCAs to university rec centers, were affected in some way.

The most startling response came from the River Plaza Athletic Club in Waterloo, IA. The club, a former YMCA, is aptly named–it‘s right near the Cedar River. When I first called there Wednesday afternoon, the lady who responded said she was “ankle-deep” in water. Then I later talked to the sleep-deprived owner for a good 15 minutes to get some more details. Considering the circumstances, I was surprised to find how willing he was to share some information. He even asked me for our Web site, eager to read the story. (I bet he read our story at home, not at the club.)

We couldn‘t get to everybody, obviously. If you are a club in Iowa or anywhere else in the Midwest dealing with flood issues, we want to hear from you. Click on the comment button to share your experiences with us. -Stuart

Late last week, I received an e-mail from IHRSA that the club membership levels in the United States were 41.5 million. Earlier this year, IHRSA had estimated that that number would be 44.1 million, but upon final tally, the number was just slightly above the 41.3 million members the industry reportedly had in 2005 and lower than the 42.7 million members the industry reportedly had in 2006.

Although IHRSA says this change is not statistically significant, I find more than one million members to be significant. I’ve e-mailed IHRSA to find out whether the numbers reported for 2006 were just wrong or whether in fact the industry has lost more than one million members in a year. I’ll let you know what they say when I hear back. –Pam

At first, the idea of doing a photo shoot to get some new photos for my editorial page sounded like a lot of fun. And it started out that way. We had a great location–Woodside Health & Tennis Club in Westwood, KS, (a cute, little suburb of Kansas City, MO)–and a cool day with some cloud cover, which typically makes for better photos. Jennifer Ray, our art director, put her photography skills and camera to use (along with her two ladders and light from home), and Jennipher Shaver, our senior associate editor, brought her considerable hair and makeup skills (boy, did I need those, especially considering it was a bit windy this morning).

We scouted some good locations for photos, lugged all the equipment and change of outfits into the facility, and then proceeded to have some fun in our photo shoot. All we needed was a little music in the background and maybe an entourage to feel like a real photo shoot.

However, have you tried to smile and look peppy, professional and approachable for two hours straight as strangers in a club stare at you and wonder what the heck you are doing? After a while, it began to get a little taxing, especially since my personality is such that being the center of attention for too long is more than a little uncomfortable for me.

Still, I don’t mean to complain too much. It was a fun excursion out of the office, and we got some great shots that you’ll be seeing in the magazine and perhaps online, probably starting in June. And goodness knows, if I’m tired of the photo of me standing next to the tennis net, our faithful readers are, too. I guess it was about time! –Pam

I’m in the midst of collecting what I hope are the last of the Top 100 forms for our annual Top 100 club list, which is published each year in our July issue. We started collecting the forms a bit earlier this year than last year, and that has helped quell the panic I normally feel at this time of year. I’ve begun inputting the data into my Excel file, and once I figure out which companies from last year’s list are still missing, I’ll begin making phone calls.

I like putting together this list every year because I can compare it to last year’s list to catch any trends. One thing that surprised me this year is that I haven’t seen as many clubs reporting decreased revenue in 2007 over 2006 as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong; some of the companies are reporting decreased revenue–just not as many as I thought. I guess next year’s list will be the most telling since our list ranks clubs on their revenue from the previous year.

After I input more data, I’ll share with you a few more insights before the list comes out in our July issue. If you haven’t submitted your form yet, e-mail me at pam.kufahl@penton.com for a form or click on the Top 100 link on our Web site. –Pam

During the last few months, the Club Industry‘s Fitness Business Pro editorial, sales and online staff members have been diligently updating the Web site. Without doing a complete redesign, we‘ve tweaked the organization of the site quite a bit, streamlining content, in hopes that you, the reader, can more easily navigate our site.

Some of our most notable changes are that we‘ve condensed our current news and hot news, and we‘ve moved our current issue‘s content to the left side. We‘ve also replaced our Resource Box (don‘t worry, it‘s not gone. It‘s just moved to the upper navigation bar) with featured content, bringing you easy access to the hottest features on our site. Please feel free to post your comments below, and let us know what you think of the tweaking!

On a more personal note, thankfully, our freshly tweaked site launched minutes before my computer crashed and presented me with the famous “blue screen of death,” so I was able to see the site in my own workspace for a little bit. Today, Pam is taking a vacation day, so I‘ve been lucky enough to use her computer (and corner office–score!) while she‘s away. Too bad she comes back tomorrow; the view ain‘t bad! –Jennipher

When I started as a magazine editor more than 15 years ago, I worked on one magazine, and my job consisted of writing news, editing all content and attending trade shows. Today, the magazine world has changed. In addition to those responsibilities, editors on magazines today also keep up their Web sites with fresh news and content, put together e-newsletters, record podcasts, blog and now, it seems, we make videos.

OK, so you won’t be seeing any of our videos on MTV or even YouTube, but you will soon see them with each edition of the digital magazine that we are launching later this month. (Don’t worry, you can still receive the print version if you prefer.)

I had the “pleasure” of recording the introduction video for our first digital edition yesterday. This video will pop up when you open the digital edition. What I thought would be a quick and easy shoot with just a few takes turned into an hour-long process in which I fit the camera operator (an editor on one of the other books at our publishing company), our art director (who acted as the teleprompter by holding up large sheets of paper with my copy printed on it), our senior associate editor (who held a white board to one side of the shot to reflect light onto my face, preventing a shadow effect) and myself into my small office.

After several “takes” (I’m already getting this movie lingo down!) in which I didn’t make any flubs (or at least anything worthy of being on “America’s Funniest Home Videos”), I felt my delivery was a little stiff. So, I decided to do a few more takes, proceeded to make a few flubs, laughed about them and loosened up enough that I think the last take was the best. At least that’s what the other three people in the room told me. Granted, they may have had ulterior motives (such as getting the heck back to their real jobs), but I think they were sincere. I won’t really know, however, until I can view the video in a few days.

I’m anticipating being a pro at the video shoot within the next few months, especially since this was actually my second videotaping experience (I was interviewed for a New York-based show called “Strength Nation” while at the Club Industry East show in mid-April).

Because it was such a great experience, I’ll be sharing the video introduction responsibility with Stuart (who probably couldn’t have fit in my office at yesterday’s shoot) and Jennipher. If you want to see the introductions, however, you have to sign up for the digital edition of the magazine. Of course, if we enjoy the video part of our job enough (and if you enjoy watching the videos), then we may just start videotaping interviews, trade shows and other industry events and posting them on our Web site on a regular basis.

But don’t worry. This new venture into video won’t mean that we’ll be neglecting the print side of our business. After all, video has yet to kill the radio star, and we don’t anticipate it killing our devotion to the magazine or our Web site. Besides, the day that high-definition technology makes it to the online world, I may be the first one to run from the camera. –Pam

It seems like I‘ve been blogging all afternoon, so I want to leave you with a few random thoughts about Club Industry East 2008:

Although I didn‘t get to see as much of the trade show floor as I had hoped, one thing that stood out was the number of massage tables exhibited. There must have been four or five booths that had them. Note to self: Get in the massage table business. The most fun booth I saw was Crunch‘s Wii booth. I saw two people going head-to-head playing tennis, and another two people playing baseball. Note to self: If you are lucky to get a Wii, do not give it up.

Pam, Jenn and I saw the musical “Curtains” with David Hyde Pierce (Frasier‘s brother) and enjoyed it very much. We traipsed all over New York to get half-price tickets, too. The next night, while Pam and Jenn went to the Met (no, not the Mets), I went solo and saw Laurence Fishburne in “Thurgood.” If you‘re in New York, this is a must-see. If officially opens later this month, but it will only be around until August.

Pam, Jenn and I went out to eat Wednesday night with Stacey Orlick, our conference director. We ended up at Junior‘s at Grand Central Station, and their hamburgers were huge. As I found out later in the week, their hot dogs were even bigger. After we ate, Pam and Jenn went to work out. Earlier in the day, Stacey, a Jersey girl, had asked me if I wanted to go to the Yankees-Red Sox game, provided that her contact could come through with tickets. That didn‘t materialize, but we sat and watched the rest of the game at the hotel bar, talking about spouses and babies. (Note: It‘s not often when a woman, married or otherwise, asks a man if he wants to have a beer and watch a game. Those are opportunities you have to seize upon.) Later in the game, our associate publisher, New York homeboy Marty McCallen, came through the lobby wearing his Paul O‘Neill autographed jersey. Marty, his wife, and their two sons had just come from Yankee Stadium, where they witnessed a couple of fights and heard a few choice words of the English language.

Ed Tock, one of our contributing writers, has been a popular person in this blog, and that‘s only because of his friendly nature. Ed picked up the tab for our cab ride from the hotel to the Javits Center one morning. As Ed tried to hail a cab, traffic was coming within a foot (literally, his own foot) of hitting Ed. I was worried that we were going to have to find another writer (and another speaker for the show). Ed, another native New Yorker, proved he knew what he was doing. Later, he gave me some good contacts at a nearby club.

At one point before our 8:30 a.m. sessions, Pam and I found ourselves in a sort of semi-circle talking with Rick Caro, Ed Tock, Bruce Carter and Michael Scott Scudder. We could have had a Club Industry magazine meeting right then and there. It‘s comforting to know that our writers and contributors are some of the best in the business. -Stuart