G.D. Crain

Gustavus Dedman Crain Jr. (G.D. Crain Jr.) (November 18, 1885 – December 15, 1973) founded Crain Communications, Inc. in 1916. Crain was an advertising titan who still has awards named after him today.

Early Life

G.D. Crain was born in north-central Kentucky on November 18, 1885. As a boy, Crain was a newspaper delivery boy, and as he got older, he began working as a correspondent at the Louisville Herald and the Courier-Journal, as well as the Western Underwriter.

Career

G.D. Crain was a man of great drive and enthusiasm. Speaking of his first business venture, as a young boy selling newspapers in Louisville, Kentucky, he said, “I started my business career with a capital of five cents… and returned home a couple of hours later with a 100% increase in capital.” He never looked back.

As a young business paper correspondent, G.D. Crain learned that “there was no substitute for personal contact with the people I was writing about.” He later extended this lesson to advertisers and their audiences, becoming one of the first to stress the importance of market research.

In February 1916, at the age of 30, Mr. Crain started his first publication, Hospital Management, with just $10,000 and one employee. He started his second publication, Class, a month later to reach business-to-business marketing professionals. Mr. Crain would continue to grow the Crain Publishing Co. through the Great Depression, World War II, and many other turbulent times with an innovative approach to business-to-business publications and an entrepreneurial spirit that stayed with him until his passing in 1973. Crain’s other publications included Advertising Requirements, Advertising & Sales Promotion, Advertising Agency, Marketing Insights, Business Insurance, Automotive News, Pensions & Investments, American Laundry Digest, American Drycleaner, American Coin Op, and American Clean Car.

Mr. Crain’s publishing philosophy was simple: Find an area where there was a real information need, then “put the reader first from the first day.” A century after his first publication, the company that bears his name continues to grow by staying true to the tenets upon which Crain Communications was founded.

Crain was an early promoter of circulation audits, editorial independence, and high standards for business publications. He was active in the National Association of Industrial Advertisers, the National Conference of Business Paper Editors, American Business Press, Magazine Publishers Association, Chicago Business Publications Association, and the Chicago Industrial Advertisers Association.

After Death

G.D. Crain has been widely recognized and admired since his death. He is a member of the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame.

G.D. Crain’s wife, Gertrude Ramsay Crain, viewed herself as “the keeper of the flame” after she succeeded her husband, G.D. Crain Jr., as chairman of Crain Communications. But she was so much more. Gertrude Crain led the company, founded by Mr. Crain 100 years ago, during some of its most exciting and productive years. During her tenure, Crain bought Modern Healthcare and Rubber & Plastics News, started such publications as Crain’s Chicago Business (and similar papers in Detroit, Cleveland, and New York) and Investment News, and expanded internationally. Crain’s revenue during that period increased tenfold, and the company’s titles went from a handful to over two dozen. Above all, Gertrude Crain was the one who made the Crain family company a real family. She laughed with Crain employees, she cried with them, and she celebrated the milestones of their lives with them. When Gertrude Crain passed away in 1996 at the age of 85, Advertising Age said her “smile warmed hearts, lit up rooms, lifted spirits.”

References

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