Crain is named publisher of Automotive News
DETROIT, May 31, 1971 - Terms of the sale of Automotive News to Crain Communications Inc. of Chicago were finalized last week. Crain will take over June 1.
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Keith E. Crain, who has been publisher of Advertising & Sales Promotion and Industrial Marketing, two of the Crain properties, will be publisher and editorial director of Automotive News.
The 46-year-old Automotive News will continue to be published in Detroit.
Crain Communications publishes six business newspapers, the largest of which is Advertising Age.
PERSPECTIVE 2000
To bring the Automotive News story up to date:
George Slocum died in 1949, and his wife, Mabel, owned Slocum Publishing Co. until 1971. It was sold to Crain Communications shortly before Mabel Slocum died.
Mabel Slocum did not play an active role in the business. Pete Wemhoff ran the show.
The nation was in a recession in 1971, and Automotive News was feeling the pinch. The Crain organization turned things around and brought the paper back to profitability and prosperity, a situation that continues today.
There was cost cutting and there were changes in focus and procedure. Behind all of them was Keith Crain. It is no exaggeration to say that Keith Crain saved Automotive News. The changes were effected with no layoffs or dismissals of editorial personnel and no reduction in salaries.
Automotive News has grown under the Crain banner. Circulation was about 40,000 in 1971; it averaged 81,065 for the six months ended June 30 of this year. We had 13 full-time editors and reporters in 1971. Today, as noted above, the editorial staff numbers 50. Crain Communications has grown, too. It had six publications before buying Automotive News in 1971. Today, it has 29.
