SHAPE Magazine Partners With MapMyFITNESS for 2012 Fitness Challenge Program

NEW YORK, Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SHAPE, the leading active lifestyle magazine for women, is excited to announce the 2012 SHAPE Fitness Challenge in partnership with MapMyFITNESS, a suite of award-winning mobile and web tools designed to make fitness training simple and shareable, and ASICS, a global leader in performance athletic technology. MapMyFITNESS brings healthy and active individuals the best-in-class mobile and digital tools required to set goals, track progress and share results with friends and family.

SHAPE's Fitness Challenge, which is solely sponsored by ASICS, will be fully integrated with in-book, online and mobile components.  This program will coincide with the start of the New Year to inspire participants to make their resolutions count by bringing readers and fitness enthusiasts a fun-filled eight-week initiative that will launch on SHAPE.com beginning on December 28th. During the 60-day plan, SHAPE readers will be able to commit to run, walk, or bike their way to their fitness goals through one of MapMyFITNESS's programs. Through innovative features, this online portal provides more than five million fitness enthusiasts the ability to track and store their daily exercise routes via Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. As an added tool, SHAPE's editors will create useful and empowering tips to help readers meet their goals.

"We are so proud to launch the 2012 Fitness Challenge with MapMyFITNESS," commented Brian Gruseke, SHAPE's Vice President, Publisher and Director of Corporate Sales. "This innovative program combines the superior editorial content that SHAPE readers know and trust with MapMyFITNESS's robust collection of mobile and online products. We're also thrilled to have the backing of ASICS, with their commitment to helping everyone achieve their fitness goals."

The featured challenges include: The ride challenge, "Ride a Century," the walk challenge, "Walk a Marathon," the run challenge, "Run 30 Miles in 30 Days," and the fitness challenge, "30 Days of Fitness." As an incentive for participants, they will be able to select a challenge and complete the goal that corresponds with that challenge within 30 days to be entered into a drawing to win various prizes.

"We are thrilled to partner with SHAPE to provide its readers with truly unique ways to get them to closer to their health and fitness goals," said Robin J. Thurston, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of MapMyFITNESS. "At MapMyFITNESS we strive to help people lead healthier and more active lifestyles, and we believe these challenges get us closer to that objective."

About American Media, Inc.
American Media, Inc. owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and health and fitness media brands in the United States. AMI's titles include Star, OK!, National Enquirer, Globe, Country Weekly, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Pixie, Shape, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy and Natural Health. AMI also manages 18 different digital sites including RadarOnline.com, OKmagazine.com, Shape.com, MensFitness.com, MuscleandFitness.com and FitPregnancy.com. AMI's magazines have a combined total circulation of almost 7 million and reach more than 55 million men and women each month. AMI's digital properties reach an average of 10 million unique visitors and 80 million page views monthly.

AMI also operates a Publishing Services business unit which includes Distribution Services, Inc. (DSI), the No. 1 in-store magazine sales and merchandising marketing company in the U.S. and Canada. DSI places and monitors AMI's publications and third-party publications to ensure proper displays in major retail chains and national and regional supermarket chains. DSI also provides marketing, merchandising and information gathering services to third parties including non-magazine clients. Publishing Services also provides print and digital advertising sales and strategic management direction in the following areas: manufacturing, subscription circulation, logistics, event marketing and full back office financial functions.  Playboy is one of many publishers who have taken advantage of these additional services.

About MapMyFITNESS

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, MapMyFITNESS was founded in 2007 and operates a suite of fitness-oriented websites and associated mobile and tablet applications including MapMyRUN.com, MapMyRIDE.com, MapMyWALK.com, MapMyHIKE.com, MapMyFITNESS.com, MapMyMOUNTAIN.com and MapMyTRI.com.  MapMyFITNESS provides more than 6 million runners, cyclists, walkers, and other fitness enthusiasts with access to an innovative geo-mapping application that permits them to track and store their daily running, cycling, walking or hiking routes in an online database, a searchable database of routes across the globe, essential community-based fitness content, unique online training tools and fitness calculators, comprehensive global event listings, and a dynamic social network of healthy and active individuals. MapMyFITNESS's iMapMy mobile apps use the built-in GPS technology of the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android to enable users to record and chart their daily fitness activities and routes right on their devices.  For more information about MapMyFITNESS and its offerings, visit http://www.mapmyfitnessinc.com.

SOURCE American Media, Inc.