Crain’s Detroit editor/publisher leaving for PR firm

Ron Fournier

Crain’s Detroit Business publisher and editor Ron Fournier is leaving journalism to become president of the Lansing-based Truscott Rossman public relations and lobbying firm.

A story on Crain’s Detroit website states, “The firm’s founder and CEO, Kelly Rossman-McKinney, is retiring and seeking election to the state Senate in her district in mid-Michigan.

“Co-founder and current President John Truscott will become CEO of the firm and is buying out Rossman-McKinney’s stake. Truscott said the firm’s name will not change. He would not comment on the purchase price.

“Fournier, 54, joined Crain’s in September 2016, after covering politics in Washington, D.C., for The Associated Press, the National Journal and The Atlantic. His move represents a departure from journalism after three decades that included covering Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“‘I had a long run in journalism — from Arkansas to the White House and then back home in 2016 to Detroit, where I enjoyed leading Crain’s through major change. Now it’s time to get off the sidelines and into the arena,’ Fournier said.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.