Franchise Times

Franchise Times is a national business publication with the tagline, “The news and information source for franchising.” Its coverage combines the news of the numerous industries that make up franchising, as well as the trends and legal issues that influence franchising as a way of doing business both in the U.S. and internationally. Popular features include franchisor and franchisee success stories, family business matters and interviews with celebrities who are involved in franchising—such as Saints Quarterback Drew Brees (June/July 2014) and Rapper Pitbull (February 2013).

Franchise Times was founded by Crain Communications as a business publication targeting prospective franchisees. The first copy of Franchise Buyer, its original name, was published in 1994. The name was changed in 1996 to Franchise Times to reflect its wider appeal to readers already doing business in franchising. Crain is known for its city publications, such as Crain’s Chicago Business, Autoweek and Advertising Age.

John Hamburger, owner of Restaurant Finance Corp based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, purchased the rights to the trademark in September 1998 and the first issue under his ownership was published in January 1999. Included in the agreement were the trademark, subscription and advertiser lists, copyright, web domain name and copies of back issues.

Hamburger founded Restaurant Finance Corp. in 1987 as a consulting business to the restaurant industry. The company began offering prospective clients, the Restaurant Finance Monitor, a monthly newsletter that focuses on finance information for multi-unit restaurants businesses, as a marketing strategy. From the popularity of the newsletter, Hamburger created the successful Restaurant Finance & Development Conference in 1990.

Hamburger bought Franchise Times when it became available, because he saw restaurant chains were moving into the franchise arena and wanted to expand his restaurant coverage to that growing trend.

He teamed up with Janet Sparks, publisher of Continental Franchise Review (CFR) based in Denver, when he bought CFR in 1998 and rolled its coverage into the revamped Franchise Times. CFR, as it was known, was a newsletter that covered franchise developments, before it was on the radar of business publications. Thomas Murphy, the founder of CFR, was a notable consultant in franchising and his feisty personality colored the editorial approach of the bi-weekly publication. When Hamburger bought the publication, he hired the publisher, Sparks, to write editorials under the CFR trademark. She then moved to writing a monthly column until 2011.

Mary Jo Larson, who was the publisher/editor of the Restaurant Finance Monitor became the first publisher of the magazine under Hamburger’s ownership. She also served as the first editor.

In 1999, Franchise Times published its first ranking of the Franchise Times Top 200 franchise companies based on worldwide sales and locations. The list also included the next 100 “up and comers.” Franchise Times’ list was different from others in that it did not include rankings based on subjective data, only sales and unit counts. It has since expanded its list to the top 500 companies, under the trademark of the Top 200+.

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