Crain’s restructuring for digital focus, enterprise

Detroit — Crain’s Detroit Business announced Friday a restructuring that will see a handful of veterans leave the publication.

Ron Fournier, associate publisher at Crain’s, said ultimately the “content is going to get better, but the production doesn’t change.”

Staff reporters will be reorganized to focus more heavily on enterprise reporting. Fournier said Crain’s will hire three reporters to focus on daily breaking news. In addition to the breaking news positions, Crain’s will also hire for a full-time new lead reporter position, a special projects editor and a page designer.

Crain’s editors Dan Duggan, Jennette Smith and Gary Piatek, and reporter Chad Halcom will leave the publication, according to a report published by Crain’s on Friday afternoon. The restructuring also brings about retirement for an advertising sales director and reporter Tom Henderson.

The overall full-time headcount will grow at Crain’s. The publication will lose some part-time positions, Fournier said.

The business magazine will still publish weekly on Mondays, Fournier said. The change is pre-emptive, responding to a changing market.

Fournier, who started at Crain’s in September after a lengthy career in Washington, D.C., with the Associated Press and The Atlantic magazine, said he was brought on at Crain’s to reorganize the newsroom. The restructuring realigns the newsroom to be more digitally focused “while doing deeper, must-have news,” Fournier said.

“If we do this right, our enterprise journalism will be even sharper and more provocative ... our breaking news will be more comprehensive,” he said.

Crain’s Detroit Business was founded by Crain Communications, Inc. in 1985.

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