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MacLean Publishing Company Limited
Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- The Grocer Publishing Company
- J.B. MacLean Publishing Company of Toronto Limited
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
MacLean Publishing Company Limited was a major publishing house in Canada from 1891 to 1945, producing many popular magazines and periodicals, including Maclean's Magazine, the Financial Post, and numerous trade publications.
The company history of the MacLean Publishing Company began with the founding of the Grocer Publishing Company by John B. MacLean on 26 September 1887, with capital partially supplied by MacLean's mentor, Thomas W. Dyas. It published one monthly, The Canadian Grocer. Low initial sales prompted MacLean to bring his brother Hugh C. MacLean, a printer by trade, into the business after the third issue of The Grocer. Thereafter the company prospered, launching new trade magazines such as Hardware and Metal, Dry Goods Review, and Printer and Publisher.
On April 30, 1891, the brothers incorporated as the J.B. MacLean Publishing Company of Toronto Limited. During the 1890s the head office of the company was briefly relocated to Montreal but returned to Toronto in 1905, upon which the company soon launched Canadian Machinery and Busy Man's Magazine, later to be renamed Maclean's Magazine, as well as the Financial Post, Plumber and Steamfitter, and The Power House.
On 31 December 1918, John B. MacLean transferred all publishing business owned and carried on by him personally to the J.B. MacLean Publishing Company of Toronto. Within six months, on 1 May 1919, the company changed its name to the MacLean Publishing Company Limited, launching Mayfair Magazine in 1927 and Chatelaine in 1928.
In addition to MacLeans, the company's executive included Horace Talmadge Hunter (1881-1961), who had started as an advertising representative for Hardware and Metal in 1903 and later was made business manager for Plumber and Steamfitter in 1907. In 1911 he was appointed General Manager of the John B. McLean Publishing Company of Toronto and was made Vice-President in 1916. He became President of the MacLean Publishing Company in 1934. Recognition of Hunter's increased importance came with the reorganization of the business as the Maclean-Hunter Publishing Company in 1945.