Former Barron’s publisher Flanagan dies at 88

Bernard Flanagan

Bernard Thomas Flanagan, who served as publisher of Barron’s, died on Nov. 11 at the age of 88.

A MarketWatch.com story states, “Flanagan rose through the Dow Jones ranks to serve as publisher of Barron’s. He lead the company’s magazine group in the late 1970s, later served as vice president of marketing for the Journal from 1990 to 1994 and last as vice president of corporate marketing at Dow Jones (which is also the parent of Barron’s and MarketWatch), before retiring in 1996.

“A big believer in the power of maintaining advertising spending during economic downturns, Flanagan persuaded Dow Jones to fund the award-winning Creative Leaders campaign, a series of interviews with the industry’s top talent around the globe, his daughter, Bernice Burns, said. In copy-dominant, full-page ‘ads about ads,’ creative directors at the hottest agencies of their time shared their professional philosophies, success stories, the state of the business and their beliefs on how and why advertising works.

“Flanagan served on the boards of the Advertising Club of New York and the American Advertising Federation. While leading the latter, he was instrumental in helping defeat advertising tax initiatives at the state and national level, his daughter said. Flanagan was inducted into AAF’s Advertising Hall of Fame in 1999.”

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.