Mother in the Middle

One can not help but feel when speaking with Gertrude Crain that she could soothe a wounded panther. Or, more importantly for her purposes, iron out the differences between her two ambitious and capable sons, Rance and Keith.

Crain Communications Inc. is well beyond the point where anybody sleeps over the store. It owns 25 business publications — most of them weekly newspapers and monthly magazines — and takes in about $140 million per year. The empire is run by Rance and Keith as separate duchies. Each has his following and there is little crossover between camps. But as long as Gertrude is chairman of the company, and handles all the money, no enmity between the two factions is evident.

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