John Bayne Maclean

Who was John Bayne Maclean?

Lieutenant Colonel John Bayne Maclean was a Canadian publisher. He founded Maclean's Magazine, the Financial Post and the Maclean Publishing Company, later known as Maclean-Hunter.

He was born in Crieff, Ontario. Maclean's father, Andrew Maclean, was a Presbyterian minister in Puslinch Township who had immigrated to Canada from Scotland.

Maclean worked as a teacher and financial editor of the Toronto Mail before entering publishing with his brother Hugh Cameron Maclean by founding Canadian Grocer & Storekeeper's Newspaper in 1887. He then added a number of trade magazines: Hardware and Metal, Dry Goods Review, and Printer and Publisher. In 1905 he founded The Business Magazine which became The Busy Man's Magazine before changing its name to Maclean's Magazine in 1911. He founded the Financial Post in 1907, the Farmer's Magazine in 1910, Mayfair in 1927 and Chatelaine in 1928 building Canada's largest magazine empire. His military rank was earned through service with the Canadian militia, in which he was Commanding Officer of Montreal's Royal Canadian Hussars from 1898 to 1903.

His longtime collaborator and associate, Horace Talmadge Hunter, succeeded Maclean as company president upon the founder's retirement. In 1945, the company was renamed Maclean-Hunter.