That’s the import of the speculative stories in both NYP and Folio this week: the lifestyle books and magazine publisher Rodale (publisher of Runner’s World, Men’s Health and Prevention) has retained JPMorgan to explore strategic options, the NYP story says, and the option is not sale, but bringing in more money for expanding. Among the firms it is having some talks with include Elevation Partners, the media/telecom PE firm which has invested in Forbes and Palm recently.

Folio says the money could be as much as $100 million, and the money would be to fund a significant roll-out of its Internet operations, “particularly in an online health and fitness space,” the story quotes a source. And this is beyond the existing magazine websites like Runnersworld.com