PRINTMissouri Honor Medalists: Rance Crain
MU recognizes seven journalists with the presentation of the Missouri Honor Medal
Courtesy of Rance Crain
Rance Crain will receive a Missouri Honor Medal Oct. 20.
October 15, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Rance Crain, president of Crain Communications Inc. and editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, Crain’s Chicago Business and Crain’s New York Business
Despite the teenage indiscretion of attending Northwestern University, Rance Crain worked his way to the top of his family’s company, Crain Communications Inc., to become president in 1973. He writes a bi-weekly column for Advertising Age, and he and his brother oversee about 25 publications of the company.
What: Marketing Myopia, Journalism's Dirty Little Secret
Date: Tues., Oct. 20
Time: 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Where: Fred W. Smith Forum, MU Campus
How long have you been involved in journalism?
I graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern in 1960, where I was sports editor of The Daily Northwestern, and then I went right to work for our family company Crain Communications in the Washington office. I was a reporter, and then I started a few of our publications. I started Pensions & Investments in 1973, Crain’s Chicago Business in 1978 and Crain’s New York Business in 1985. I’ve always been in our family company, which was started by my father in 1916.
What does your role as company president entail?
My brother and I sort of divide up the company. I’m never too far away from the editorial product. That’s what I care most about, and I want to make sure our publications are doing a great job and are being read and appreciated by our readers. You really have to have a strong publication that is the heart and soul of the brand.
Did you ever not want to do journalism, or did you want to do journalism, and your family just happened to have this company?
I never wanted to do anything else but be a reporter. When I was in college, I read a book about Washington called Advise and Consent, and it really influenced me. I thought I would very much want to work in Washington. I met with Washington editor Stan Cohen, and he said, “Well, what would you like to do? Would you like to see the White House? Would you like to see the Senate?” I said, “No, I would like to do a story for you.” So he sent me over the to the Federal Communications Commission, and I looked up some information, and I wrote a story. He didn’t have to change it much so he said, “I guess I could use an assistant.” So that’s how it began.
Crain Communications specializes in mostly trade publications. Why that and not daily city newspapers?
My dad was a newspaperman in Louisville, Ky., but he always wanted to be a publisher. He was very interested in business publishing; probably one of the reasons was, quite frankly, that he couldn’t have afforded to start a daily newspaper. The first one he started was called Hospital Management.
You also write a bi-weekly column. Where do you draw inspiration for your topics?
From just about anything that happens, both in advertising and outside of advertising. I like to comment on interesting things that happen. For the most part, I write about developments in the advertising business.
What is the future of Crain Communications?
I think it’s going to be a very interesting future, because in the old days, we had a publication that we would use to break a lot of news, but now our Web sites break a lot of news. So our publications have to take on a different role.
What is you favorite thing about journalism?
I think it’s still breaking a big story. I don’t think there’s anything more exciting than that. That will always, always capture my higher interest.
What was your reaction when you heard you were receiving the award?
I was very honored because I knew some other people who had gotten it in the past, and I knew it was a very big deal, so I was very honored to be included, especially because I’m not a Missouri graduate. In fact, I’m from what could be considered a rival school. So they must really love me.
Your master class on Oct. 20 is called Marketing Myopia: Journalism’s Dirty Little Secret. What exactly does that mean?
I‘m going to be saying that journalists need to be more marketing oriented. That’s not to say they need to sell or shill the goods of the advertisers in the paper. What that means is that they have to understand their audience better than they have in past. They have to also understand what their audience wants and needs.
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