FAMILY FLEXES MUSCLE ON NEW FRONT WEIDER BRANCHES OUT FROM FITNESS MAGS INTO HISTORY.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

WOODLAND HILLS - Eric Weider's family made its money building people's bodies - now he's going after their minds.

As the nephew of fitness legend Joe Weider and son of Ben Weider, president of the International Federation of BodyBuilders, Eric grew up in the muscle industry. But as often as his relatives talked about squats and barbells, they discussed cannon fire and infantry tactics.

"We talked about Napoleon at dinner like he was the uncle I never met," said Eric Weider, now the 42-year-old president of the Weider History Group. "Much to the chagrin of my mother, I suppose."

His dad wrote a book on the French emperor and his uncle ardently studied the Wild West. They filled their offices with Remington sculptures of horsemen and a Revolutionary War musket and an American flag hangs at the entrance to their headquarters.

Those conversations and artifacts took root with the executive, who made his name in the family business publishing titles like Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Shape. With American Media Inc.'s $350 million purchase of Weider Publications in 2002, he'd contented himself with the company's nutritional business and a sole history title, Armchair General, launched January 2004.

That changed this month with Weider's purchase of 10 magazines from Primedia Inc., including Military History, Civil War Times, World War II and Wild West. Though he estimates his new titles give him a cumulative readership of 700,000 - compared with the more than 3 million who read the bodybuilding titles the Weider family founded - they also make him the largest publisher of niche history magazines in the country.

"To me," he said, "General Patton is much more exciting than Brad Pitt or the ones you see in People magazine."

To enhance their presence in the marketplace, Weider intends to marry their content with the flashier, more contemporary design of Armchair General. While he doesn't think he'll have any blockbuster titles on his hands, he sees potential to bring the subjects that fascinate him to a wider audience.

To help carry out that mission, Weider hired Stephen Petranek to serve as editor-in-chief for the magazine group. Petranek, a former business and investigative reporter for the Miami Herald and Washington Post, most recently served as editor-in-chief of Discover magazine.

"Most people are focused on the bottom line, not good journalistic principles, so it's a very short-term philosophy," Petranek said. "I'm sure Eric doesn't want to lose money on these, but he's much more interested in enhancing the magazines."

Weider, who quotes with equal ease Winston Churchill and the laws of thermodynamics, offers a biblical reference to explain his newfound role in the history and nutrition worlds. "The Bible says you need both a sound mind and a sound body," he said. "You can't have one without the other."

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Eric Weider stands next to a sculpture at Weider Publications.

(2) Eric Weider, at Weider Publications in Woodland Hills, sits in front of a painting of himself, center, his uncle Joe Weider, left, and his father Ben Weider. The fitness powerhouse became the country's largest publisher of history magazines.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer