Crain Communications forms Crain's Global Polymer Group

Crain Communications Inc. has announced the creation of its Global Polymer Group from existing print, digital and live-event brands.

The new group includes seven print publications, eight websites, eight trade shows, more than a dozen conferences, multiple e-newsletters, a research department and custom publishing capabilities.

“Organising our plastics, rubber and urethanes verticals into a single group better leverages our expertise and resources,” said KC Crain, executive vice president and director of corporate operations. “This alignment also allows us to capitalise on our core print products and continue to build our digital and event platforms on a global scale.”

Brands under the Global Polymer Group umbrella include Plastics News, Plastics News Europe, Plastics News China, Plastics & Rubber Weekly, Rubber & Plastics News, European Rubber Journal, Tire Business and Urethanes Technology International.

With the formation of the group, Plastics News Publisher Brennan Lafferty becomes Group Publisher and will oversee the eight brands. Lafferty will continue to direct the day-to-day operations of Detroit, US-based Plastics News as well as Plastics News China.

“This move creates opportunities for our brands to work together on projects both big and small,” Lafferty said. “We’ve regularly shared editorial resources, but by forming the group we also clearly communicate to our advertisers the direct links between our publications and brands. Those links were not always obvious to our marketing partners given the global nature of this business.”

Long-time Crain Vice President and Publisher David Zielasko remains in charge of the group’s brands in the Akron, Ohio, office. Zielasko directly oversees Tire Business and Rubber & Plastics News and all their related brands.

“The creation of the Crain Polymer Group is an exciting development for all of the publications in the group,” Zielasko said. “It paves the way for increased collaboration not only editorially but with conferences, e-newsletters, websites, expanded advertising opportunities and idea-sharing. This move enhances Crain’s position as a global media leader in the tire, rubber and polymer industries.”

Steve Crowhurst, managing director of Crain Communications Ltd., continues to manage the group’s Croydon, England, operations as publishing director. Crowhurst directly manages Plastics News Europe, Plastics & Rubber Weekly, European Rubber Journal and Urethanes Technology International and all their affiliated properties.

“Crain is a global information provider and we work with our customers across global markets so it’s timely that this has been recognized under our Crain Global Polymer Group brand,” Crowhurst said.

Both Crowhurst and Zielasko now report to Lafferty under the new structure.

“Steve, Dave and I are lucky to have such an accomplished team of 80 media professionals in our combined group,” Lafferty said. “The amount of expertise our team has is unsurpassed in these markets, too. We all know the Crain mantra of ‘Readers first.’ That core belief has served Crain well for almost 100 years and continues to be our guiding principle.”

Lafferty has overall responsibility for the new group, including profit and loss, product development and strategic management. He has been with Crain Communications for 18 years, the last two as publisher of Plastics News. He worked for Waste & Recycling News before that including roles as publisher, sales manager and managing editor. Lafferty holds a bachelor’s degree in English from John Carroll University.