Crain Communications Inc. on Nov. 17 launched a series of personalized, digital business publications in nine U.S. cities as part of a plan to expand the Crain brand nationwide as it approaches its 100th anniversary.
The cities for the Monday-through-Friday morning email newsletters are Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The new publications are being added to Crain's established city business journal brands in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, including Crain's Detroit Business. Next year marks Detroit-based Crain Communications' centennial.
Under the tagline, “Business News Just Got Personal,” each brand will carry the Crain name and market, such as Crain's Boston, Crain's Los Angeles and Crain's Houston.
Crain hired 11 journalists to manage the brands and provide content.
The nine new brands expand the company's mission to provide one-stop news sources for business leaders.
“For almost 100 years, Crain has been the leading source of business news for top executives and decision-makers in the U.S. and abroad,” KC Crain, executive vice president and director of corporate operations at Crain Communications, said in a news release. “The launch of these new brands offers Crain the ability to better grow our audience with daily and breaking business news in our readers' hometowns and customized to their preferences.”
The new city business brands feature email newsletters that customize content based on reader preferences and engagement.
Daily content includes a mix of curated local and industry business news, articles from Crain publications and original content, including a series titled “If I Knew Then …” featuring interviews with local industry leaders.
“While the way we deliver content continues to evolve, what remains the same is our commitment to giving readers a business edge every day by providing the news most important to them,” Crain said.
Crain has appointed Sean Flanagan as publisher of the new brands. Formerly the vice president and worldwide publisher of National Geographic, Flanagan previously held positions at Maxim, Reader's Digest and Men's Health magazines
“I'm excited to be a part of Crain's history of innovation,” Flanagan said. “These new brands will showcase our cutting-edge technology and solidify Crain's position as a global information leader.”
The company said that in the past, when Crain launched a new publication, it cost millions of dollars. With the latest technology, it can simultaneously launch nine new digital brands at a much lower cost. KC Crain said the 99-year-old company is starting this now because current technology allows for it. "And we're being smart about using our data," he said.
Technology being employed includes customer relationship management software, which is designed to help businesses manage customer data and interaction, and "technology around email that hones in on what people want."
"Success for this is greater reader engagement and growth, seeing more people sign up for the emails," Crain said. "We're excited to see what happens in its first couple weeks."
Readers can sign up to receive the free e-newsletters by visiting CrainsAtlanta.com, CrainsBoston.com, CrainsDallas.com, CrainsHouston.com, CrainsLosAngeles.com, CrainsPhiladelphia.com, CrainsSanFrancisco.com, CrainsSiliconValley.com, CrainsWashingtonDC.com and Crains.com.
The company's portfolio includes publications such as Automotive News, Autoweek, Advertising Age, Modern Healthcare, Plastics News, Business Insurance and Pensions & Investments.