Crain celebrates 100th anniversary

Rance Crain of Crain Publications, which publishes business newspapers in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and New York, writes about the company’s 100th anniversary this year.

Crain writes, “Dad started his first publication, Hospital Management, because there was only one major publication in the field. His idea was to emphasize the administration of hospitals, with the focus on the practical work of superintendents and department heads.

“Dad always had a knack for starting publications for trades that existing books largely overlooked. His next publication, Class, was aimed at B-to-B advertisers and he started it not only because he thought the field needed a publication devoted to specialized advertising in business publications, but also as an effective way to promote Hospital Management. (Class was so named because “class” publications were aimed at the classes of people who had the same general functions, like marketing, regardless of the type of business they were in.)

“In the 1920s, both of Dad’s publications were doing reasonably well, and he was looking for new worlds to conquer. One of the great publications of the day was Printers’ Ink, which wrote about how to make advertising more effective but gave little space to news developments in the field.

“So Dad started Ad Age on Jan. 11, 1930. In my next column, I’ll tell you more about the history of Crain and our publications, including Ad Age. Like Dad, I’m very enthusiastic about it.”

Read more here.