Crunch Fitness Tries Its Hand at Publishing

How, exactly, does one become a fur-wearing poseur in Aspen? For that matter, what has actor Christopher Walken been cooking lately?

The answers to these questions appear in the recently released Crunch magazine, a twice-yearly catalog brought to you by ... a fitness club. That’s right, Crunch gyms are now in the publishing business. And it’s clear from the ads that the magazine will not waste much time on tired topics like, well, fitness.

The “almost-nothing-to-do-with-fitness” magazine will cover the latest on “movies, gadgets, gurus, gossip and more.” Although other gyms have promoted themselves through newsletters and other freebies, this is the first glossy magazine of its kind, and testament to what social critics say many fitness clubs have become--public squares, of a kind, in which everyone from busboys to bankers may come together to gossip, pose, network and sweat.

--Benedict Carey