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''Crain's Chicago Business'' is a weekly business newspaper in Chicago. It is owned by Detroit-based Crain Communications, a privately held publishing company with more than 30 magazines, including ''Advertising Age'', ''Modern Healthcare'', ''Crain's New York Business'', ''Crain's Detroit Business'', ''Crain's Cleveland Business'', and ''Automotive News''. It has a print circulation of 53,313 and a readership of 219,693 per week.〔http://www.crainschicagoadvertising.com/stats.php〕 ChicagoBusiness.com, the paper's digital equivalent, draws over 1 million unique visitors per month and over 2.2 million page views per month.〔 == History == The first issue of ''Crain's Chicago Business'' is dated April 17, 1978. In 1977, when Crain Communications chief Rance Crain went to Houston to give a speech to the Houston Advertising Club, he spent an afternoon listening to the publisher of the ''Houston Business Journal'' explain how his publication was developed. "I figured if a business publication worked well in Houston, it would be twice as successful in Chicago," Rance Crain said. Rance Crain was the newspaper's first editor-in-chief, while Art Mertz (1917–1993), a longtime sales manager at Crain Communications' ''Advertising Age'' magazine, served as the first publisher. Rance tapped Steve Yahn, a senior editor at ''Advertising Age'', to develop the prototype, do the initial hiring, and get the paper going, effectively acting as the paper's first editor. "We wanted to call it ''Chicago Business'', but another guy came out with a paper with a similar name (was short-lived )," Yahn said. "I told Rance he ought to put the Crain name on our publication to differentiate them, and he did."〔 ''Crain's'' was originally planned to publish every other week, but with the demise of the ''Chicago Daily News'' that year, those creating ''Crain's'' decided to make it a weekly publication, using the end of the ''Daily News'' for marketing purposes and also drawing on editorial talent from the failed paper.〔 The first newsstand issue of ''Crain’s Chicago Business'' appeared on Monday, June 5, 1978, a 46-page edition with an exclusive lead story on how the Marshall Field & Co. department store chain was planning further suburban expansion.〔 To promote the new paper, Rance handed out free issues to commuters at Union Station during the morning rush hour. “While I was passing out copies, a newsstand vendor in the station came up to me,” Rance recalled. “He said, ‘I sure hope you don’t have much of your own money tied up in this, because it’s not going to work.’”〔 The Chicago business community also greeted the new journal with cynicism. “We would be working on stories and call sources, saying we were with ''Crain’s Chicago Business'',” said Sandy Pesmen, feature editor at ''Crain's'' and former feature writer at the ''Daily News''. “They would say ‘Who? What? The people who make the toilets?’ Some thought we were the plumbing manufacturer (Co. ). Pretty soon, we were introducing ourselves by saying, “Hello, this is so-and-so from ''C-R-A-I-N’s Chicago Business''.”〔 One of ''Crain's''’s biggest assets from the beginning was its physical appearance. “The first major sign of encouragement we got was for our lively, contemporary look,” Steve Yahn said. “A lot of people said it looked as much like a book about the city as a financial publication. And that was exactly the intent — ''Crain's'' was meant to be a ‘hybrid’ between a city publication and a financial publication.”〔 From the start, it strove to build its reputation with enterprise reporting. “Rance loves scoops,” former Crain's editor Dan Miller said. “And the ‘scoops mentality’ became immediately ingrained in the culture of the new reporters we brought in.” However, one of those early scoops caused a firestorm that threatened to severely damage the new paper’s reputation. In late July, ''Crain's'' learned through sources in the Chicago advertising community that Sears, Roebuck & Co. planned to drastically curtail its advertising. The banner story on August 7, with the headline “Sears slashes TV, print ad budgets,” stated that cuts could reach the $100 million mark. The giant retailer angrily denied the report. “They called it preposterous,” Yahn said. “As a result, we suffered credibility problems around town. From early August until mid-October, we kept trying to find a way to get it back.”〔 Then came the break that stunningly and permanently reversed ''Crain's'' fortunes. “A young Sears public relations man named Wiley Brooks came to see Rance on a job interview,” Yahn said. “He wanted to be ''CCB'' managing editor (slot that would open up according to plans when Dan Miller replaced Yahn as editor ). Brooks told Rance that our earlier article about Sears's ad cuts was true, that he had the proof, and that there was to be a massive reorganization of the company.” Brooks’s proof was a voluminous, secret five-year plan referred to informally at Sears as the “Yellow Book.” Brooks proceeded to leak the plan to ''Crain's'' in three sections. “Each one cost ''Crain’s'' a lunch at Nick’s Fishmarket (pricey Chicago eatery ),” Yahn said. “I still remember sprinting through the downtown streets with the first part of the book in a manila folder. Our whole reputation for accuracy was on the line.”〔 In a bylined piece by Yahn, ''Crain’s'' broke the story of Sears’s secret plan on December 4 with a highly detailed 10-page package that included charts, graphs, and numerous sidebars drawn from the plan. “It made our reputation,” Yahn said. “TV picked up on it in a big way on the weekend before we hit the streets. And on Monday, copies were gone by 9 A.M. and newsstands were calling for replacements. We were interviewed by BBC and covered by ''Business Week'', and ''Business Week'' was after us for original documents. Sears did not respond.”〔 ''Crain's'' continued to go after exclusives aggressively. “Our idea was to scoop the dailies, to print news people hadn’t seen before,” Rance said. “We pursued middle-sized companies because the dailies weren’t covering them. We got great publicity for the Sears story; one national publication called us ‘feisty.’ In a way it changed the perception of the company. Here in Chicago, we weren’t well-known, but as we started getting scoops, we build our identity in the city.”〔 Encouraged by the success of ''Crain’s Chicago Business'', its parent company followed with three more business tabloids, ''Crain’s Cleveland Business'' (1980s), ''Crain’s Detroit Business'' and ''Crain’s New York Business'', which started within weeks of each other early in 1985.〔 In more recent years, ''Crain’s'' has continued to shift with the ever-evolving publishing world, making a push to an integrated print and digital newsroom. The paper has also expanded its coverage to include more political news, with an award-winning team, including reporters Tom Corfman, Greg Hinz and Rich Miller.〔(【引用サイトリンク】first=Robert )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】first=Robert )〕 Crain’s addition of Chicago sports business news, dining reviews, exercise features, and fashion reports also exemplifies how the paper has progressed as it seeks to compete with other city publications. In 2012, ''Crain’s'' moved from 360 N. Michigan Avenue into its new headquarters in the Crain Communications Building at 150 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago 60601.〔http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20110208/CRED03/110209870/crain-moving-chicago-offices-to-150-n-michigan〕 In June 2012, ''Crain's'' introduced a metered subscription plan for its website, also known as a paywall.〔http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120526/ISSUE01/305269972/crains-introduces-subscription-plan〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crain's Chicago Business」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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