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.