Muscle & Fitness bucks the gloom with robust page and revenue growth

Not all magazines or categories are hurting in this recession. According to a story in Forbes.com, Muscle & Fitness magazine, for body builders, has posted seven consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth in both pages and revenue. In the 2nd quarter of this year, its ad dollars grew 28% and pages 21%.

Muscle & Fitness is published by Weider Publications, a subsidiary of American Media Inc. and part of its AMI Enthusiast Group, which bought Weider in 2003 and, with it, Muscle & Fitness, FLEX, Muscle and Fitness Hers and associated websites as well as the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. All had been built up (if you'll excuse the pun) by Ben Weider and his family, originally of Montreal.

Apparently the reason for its success (despite declines for its sister publication Men's Fitness and other companies' similar titles such as Men's Health (Rodale), Men's Journal (Wenner Media) is that its major advertising segment is the growing sports nutrition industry.

The aggressive marketing campaigns favored by the companies behind sports drinks and dietary supplements, coupled with loyal and receptive customers (who are willing to fork over the $6.99 newsstand price), has infused the publication with rare strength.