Comments on: Crain Communications Lays Off 150; Cuts Salaries 10 Percent Companywide

By: Curious

Curious — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:34:05 +0000

I wonder if the financially desperate Crain company has sold its corporate jet, which it never really needed and is rarely used by anyone other than a member of the Crain family. Why do I think Hugo's daughter is a member of that family or at least wants to kiss its butt?

By: Onlooker

Onlooker — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:57:40 +0000

Hugo's Daughter is describing the Crain Communications that once was, not the one that has existed since Gertrude Crain retired, taking with her the "family" feel that once chracterized the company. What's happening now has been in the works for years, it's just that the guy at the top didn't see it coming. I believe that is what George H.W. Bush once called "the vision thing." Listening more would have helped too.

By: Hugo's Daughter

Hugo's Daughter — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:47:30 +0000

I so disagree with Onlooker. Cutting salaries is definitely something that isn't Crain-typical. But these are unusual times. The company had to pare down its roster of books and employees to guarantee survival. It pained them to do it but Crain is not the only publisher to be forced to take these actions. What you're forgetting to say is that the company has offered Crain employees extremely generous pension and profit sharing programs for decades. It is an extended family where everyone feels like their last name is Crain. Management has made many wise decisions that have enabled a lot of people to prosper. Onlooker, you must have some sort of axe to grind.

By: Onlooker

Onlooker — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:25:58 +0000

Crain has been sliding ever since the late Gertrude Crain stepped aside and her younger son Keith took the helm. Keith is a very different company leader than his mom was. Where she nurtured employees and gave them room to make their own decisions, Keith has been a micromanaging leader with a far harder edge, a big stubborn streak and a tendency to bully people. He also lacks vision, which is why his company clung to dying smokestack industries when it should have been broadening into newer, higher tech areas. Keith's leading title and the one closest to his heart is Automotive News. Likewise, one of his first moves as chairman was to relocate Crain's corporate headquarters from Chicago to the dying city of Detroit, where he has long been a big fish in a small pond. In retrospect, the move seems symbolic.
Cutting salaries across the board is simply unheard of at once-proud Crain as is the shuttering of so many titles in such a short period of time. The best thing that could happen to Crain is that a bigger, smarter, better financed company will come along and buy the company. Crain's future is well behind it.

By: jenkins

jenkins — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:09:54 +0000

my guess is that this company survives but as a much smaller version of itself.

By: Ruth Ann Harnisch

Ruth Ann Harnisch — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:40:25 +0000

Watching AdAge shrink to resemble a brochure has been disturbing indeed. It's like watching someone I've known my whole life wasting away, while bravely retaining as much personality and spark as the compromised condition allows.