Clubindustry

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