
John Bayne Maclean (1862 – 1950), was born in Crief, Ontario; his younger brother Hugh was born four years later. John established the Grocer Publishing Company in 1888 and two years later, Hugh joined as a partner. However, the two had problems getting along, possibly because they both courted the same woman. Hugh was successful, but his young wife died in 1897 and in 1899 Hugh sold his shares to John, moved to Winnipeg, and the two brothers never spoke to each other again. Hugh returned to Toronto in 1908 and established Hugh C. MacLean Publications, which printed a variety of magazines, most notably Canadian Magazine – a magazine containing an assortment of literature, commentary, and general interest stories. Hugh C. MacLean Publications eventually became a part of Southam Publishing, which became Canwest.
John Maclean went on to publish a number of trade magazines, including Dry Goods Review, which was the voice of Canada’s clothing manufacturers. In 1927 he founded Mayfair, a society magazine with fashion reports on what Canada’s elites were wearing to important functions and in elegant destinations. Chatelaine followed in 1928 – a woman’s magazine with fashion, fiction, beauty tips, child-rearing, and other female-related topics. Chatelaine was created in direct competition to Canadian Home Journal, which was the Canadian version of Ladies’ Home Journal and had been in print since 1905.
In 1932, Chatelaine’s circulation was 127,873 while Canadian Home Journal’s surpassed with a circulation of 153,393. Chatelaine never topped Canadian Home Journal’s circulation until John MacLean bought out Canadian Home Journal in 1958 and ceased its publication.
With the domination of American magazines like Good Housekeeping and Family Circle, Chatelaine became the last remaining Canadian women’s magazine by the 1960s. It survived by responding to Canadian women’s needs and topics, as well as speaking to the growing women’s movement with articles about equal pay, the pill, and abortion (topics generally avoided in American women’s magazines at the time.) Although, since the 1990s, Chatelaine has become less political and more focussed on fashion.
John Bayne Maclean, looked like a Lord and acted like one. He rode around in a Rolls-Royce, owned a huge house in Toronto, as well as homes in England and Palm Beach. His wife was the niece of Countess Edla of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha. Their only son died in 1919 and John offered his publishing firm to Hugh’s son Andrew, but Andrew stayed with his father’s firm. John MacLean’s publishing firm was instead left to Horace Hunter, who renamed the business MacLean-Hunter – the company that is now known as Rogers Communications.
