Does Crain Communications pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Crain Communications employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.1 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Crain Communications. This rating has decreased by 2% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Crain Communications?

36% of Crain Communications employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Crain Communications 3.1 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.5 for culture and values and 2.6 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Crain Communications?

Reporter (19) , Editor (10) , Manager (10) , Account Executive (6) , Director (5) , Marketing (5) , Editorial (4) , Intern (4) , Journalist (4) , Senior Reporter (4) , Business Analyst (3) , Editorial Intern (3) , Project Manager (3) , Sales (3) , Ad Sales Director (2)

What are the pros of working at Crain Communications according to real employee reviews?

"great people to work with" ((in 28 reviews)); "Good income and benefits for someone starting their career in the business world." ((in 16 reviews)); "Approachable colleagues and superiors" ((in 11 reviews)); "Great bosses and coworkers!" ((in 10 reviews)); "Good work life balance." ((in 10 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Crain Communications according to real employee reviews?

"Dying industry and poor management" ((in 22 reviews)); "Low pay to begin with and laughable raises" ((in 11 reviews)); "There are way too many managers to report to so there's a weird reporting structure." ((in 9 reviews)); "Technology lagged, benefits were awful but I guess that's the overall trend in insurance coverage goes, not clear on vision for the company, every other year there were huge layoffs" ((in 9 reviews)); "Inconsistent leadership" ((in 6 reviews))

What are employees saying about Crain Communications redundancies in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Crain Communications redundancy and their outlook for job security at Crain Communications in 2026.

Crain Communications Reviews

2.7

36% would recommend to a friend

(291 total reviews)

KC Crain

44% approve of CEO

37% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.1

Work/Life balance

3.1

Compensation and benefits

2.9

Diversity and inclusion

2.6

Career opportunities

2.5

Culture and values

2.3

Senior management

Crain Communications has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 291 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Crain Communications employee rating is 27% below average for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

291 reviews

1.0

9 Aug 2017

A sad decline

Journalist

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Great people in the trenches -- smart & dedicated. Great office location. Decent salary.

Cons

We went from having excellent benefits to having almost everything taken away, to the point where I can't understand why anyone under the age of 50 would want to work here. We had a pension plan, AND a profit-sharing plan, AND got a Christmas bonus. Now? NOTHING. Honestly I don't know of any reputable employers who DON'T offer a retirement plan. Except for Crain. The young leadership -- 3rd generation, you know what they say -- is ham-fisted, has communications issues, seems to lack vision and deals with problems by a) laying off rank and file workers; b) cutting benefits; and c) hiring even more bureaucrats, adding to the incredibly bloated upper leadership, non-content or revenue-producing staff and shielding themselves from having to take blame and/or address problems with true leadership.

Crain Communications Response

8y

Thank you for your candid review. As you’ve noted, Crain has changed some of our benefit offerings to our employees to grow revenue, and align us better with a highly competitive marketplace. While our reward programs have changed, they are now geared towards the goal of organizational success, where Crain will continue to share profits as its primary retirement plan contributions, as it always has in the past. Crain has always offered a voluntary savings program for retirement savings and will continue to do so. Moreover, Crain invests in employees in a variety of ways: flexible work environment, potential to earn bonuses based on individual and company performance, a generous PTO program, career development opportunities, participation in a variety of internal award programs, and community support initiatives, just to name a few.

2.0

2 Aug 2017

The beginning of the end

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Multiple locations in great cities; friendly co-workers; talented employees who are experts in their fields; good holiday time off and PTO benefit

Cons

Years and years of misspending and staff cuts to compensate for the misspending lead to overworked employees and a miserable work environment. Too many changes in upper level management year after year created chaos for employees. It's sad to see a once great company struggle so much. I don't expect the company to be around much longer unfortunately.

Crain Communications Response

8y

Response: We appreciate your feedback and thought we’d address some of your concerns. For the company to be successful, it is important not only to grow revenue but also manage costs and we constantly work to balance investment in our core business - content creation - with operating efficiency. Moreover, we have spent recent years streamlining our organizational structure to eliminate duplication of work between the brands and our corporate teams. We recognize change is very difficult but the changes we're making will allow us to grow the business in a more meaningful way going forward.

1.0

1 Sept 2017

Stay away if you can help it.

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Great staff, you will learn a lot as you will likely be doing the work of at least 2-3 different people.

Cons

Lots of volatility these last few years, but noticeable drastic changes last 2 months with leadership changes from the top. They keep cutting benefits, and cramming more work on already over worked employees with no Pay increases. Lost a lot of top talent over the years because of this, and will continue to do so. HR needs to grow a backbone to make a case for employees, instead of responding to these reviews.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 291 Reviews

Jobs at Crain Communications

Executive Operations Assistant

Assistant Content Manager

Defined Contribution Reporter