Rance Crain was the newspaper's first editor-in-chief, while Art Mertz (1917–1993), a longtime sales manager at Crain Communications' "Advertising Age" magazine, served as the first publisher. Rance tapped Steve Yahn, a senior editor at "Advertising Age", to develop the prototype, do the initial hiring, and get the paper going, effectively acting as the paper's first editor. "We wanted to call it "Chicago Business", but another guy came out with a paper with a similar name was short-lived," Yahn said. "I told Rance he ought to put the Crain name on our publication to differentiate them, and he did."