Crain CEO memo on company changes, new management

Crain Communications CEO KC Crain sent out the following to employees last month:

It’s time to accelerate our transformation. The media landscape is moving faster than ever, and so must we. To stay ahead, we need to sharpen our strengths, evolve how we deliver content and services, and continue creating real value for our audiences, our clients, and one another. We’ll move forward with clarity, urgency, and care.

We’re not starting from scratch. Over the past few years, we’ve made meaningful progress building a strong subscription engine, monetizing content, and using data to better understand and serve our audiences. Bu the environment around us continues to shift quickly. Advertising demand has softened across the industry. Subscription growth has plateaued. And AI is transforming how people discover and consume information. While some of our brands are meeting performance goals, our overall business is not. That limits our ability to invest, grow, and reward our teams. It’s a clear signal that we need to operate differently.

That’s what we’re doing next. We’re putting urgency and focus behind our One Crain strategy, leveraging the expertise across our company to move faster and smarter together. To do that, we’re formalizing new centers of excellence under the leadership of COO Veebha Mehta that will bring our teams closer together around shared strategy and best practices.

Dan Peres has been named Chief Content Officer, overseeing editorial strategy and operations across all vertical brands. Dan will lead a unified content strategy, helping our newsrooms share capabilities, evolve formats, and eliminate silos so we can deliver even stronger journalism and experiences for our audiences. The City Brands editorial and events will continue to report to Jim Kirk, President — City Brands, who will work closely with Dan and editorial leadership to ensure alignment across our newsrooms.

Chris Cotnoir has been named Chief Commercial Officer, leading all advertising sales activity for Crain. Chris will bring together sales, operations, and marketing, building a more coordinated commercial strategy focused on audiences, verticals, and consistency in products, pricing, and process.

We’re continuing to build the structures that support these centers of excellence and will share more details as we move forward.

This isn’t change for the sake of change. It’s about creating a stronger Crain that continues to inform, engage, and inspire audiences across all our brands.

I’m energized by the work ahead. Change isn’t always easy, but I’m confident we have the leadership, the people, and the passion to rise to the challenge.

— KC