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A 120-year run of local printing of The Indianapolis Star will end in April, when a Georgetown Road production facility is scheduled to close.
Gannett, the news organization’s parent company, plans to lay off approximately 90 employees in conjunction with the printing plant’s closure, IndyStar reported Wednesday.
Printing of the newspaper will move to Gannett’s site in Peoria, Illinois, beginning with the April 9 edition.
Two of the four presses at the Indianapolis facility, 8278 Georgetown Road, ceased operations in 2023. That change led to the layoffs of 56 workers, according to a notice filed in compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
A spokesperson for Gannett said news and advertising operations at IndyStar’s downtown location will not be affected by the closure of the production facility.
“Our commitment to the Indianapolis community and the greater central Indiana area is unwavering,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. “The staff at The Indianapolis Star will continue to provide readers with quality, local content that matters most to them and to connect our valued advertising partners with the customers they want to reach. We deeply appreciate the many years of service our knowledgeable, skilled staff has dedicated to our Indianapolis facility.”
The newspaper has been printed at the Georgetown Road facility, known as the Pulliam Production Center, since 2001. The location opened in 1995 as a packaging center.
Eric Larsen, who started his tenure as IndyStar’s executive editor earlier this month, was quoted in Wednesday’s online report as saying Gannett is redeploying resources in a continued shift to digital readership.
The first edition of The Indianapolis Star was published on June 6, 1903.
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How sad.
I was a paper boy for the Indianapolis Star back in the early 1970s. Nothing better than reading that paper early in the morning and then as an adult with coffee every morning. But now, everything is either on the morning news or can be read on line. It’s a shame but it’s progress.
Me too, but it was 1962. What a shame!
Although I do find that the quality of journalism is much better in the newspaper than on morning news.
Wonder what time people will be getting their paper delivered?
If they’re smart, they won’t get it delivered.
I recycle mine twice a week blue plastic and all.
When we moved back to Indiana, I was really looking forward to reading the Star.
Unfortunately, the delivery was sorely lacking in consistency. Somedays delivered to neighbors, sometimes left in the street, other times not delivered at all.
We gave up after 6 months of frustration.
And wasn’t it fun trying to un-subscribe?
I quit the Star due to a declining product, intolerable delivery, and decidedly slanted writing. Simply too much to spend for sub-standard work. It was a difficult decision after 30+ years of reading it and yes, I miss it. But on the rare occasion I pick up an edition at the drug store, I’m astounded at how far it’s fallen. With the exception of sports, very little local reporting at all.
To get delivered on time, this will probably shift “late breaking news” deadlines back from it’s current roughly 6 pm-ish time to maybe noon the day before publication? Good luck reading about any sports score or afternoon political news the next morning.
The sports scores are already at least one day late except some high school results.
Was a copy boy there in 65-66. Mr. Garlock, Jim Trobaugh. We physically made literal runs to and from in house artists at Ayres, Wassons, Blocks, Strauss and others for layouts in both the Star and News. When I was informed in ‘22 there was no budget to cover the Indians I knew things were bad. This is the result of our Government allowing one company to operate 70% of all dailies in the country.
Grand Rapids already has its paper printed in Cleveland, Ohio and down to 3 issues per week. That will be the next move as the Star and Gannett “continue to be dedicated to the people and city of Indianapolis”. It would be a great move if IBJ created an actual general daily interne, full service paper serving central Indiana.
Gannett continues its pattern of killing local jobs
This is an opening for the IBJ to fill. Are you reading this Nate?
Agree!
The IBJ has hired folks like Dave Lindquist and Mark Monteith who know the market.
Joe, what “market knowledge” do those 2 bring and how does it help? Be specific
Dave Lindquist did all kinds of reporting on the nonsense at Newfields in this paper, for one specific example.
Mark Monteith turns in lovely columns every two weeks and his appreciation of George McGinnis was educational to someone who missed his playing days.
https://www.ibj.com/articles/mark-montieth-remembering-the-basketball-prowess-and-sunny-kindness-of-george-mcginnis
It’s a heck of a lot better than anything the Star had, and both miss their efforts.
Now, Chuck, what values do your banal comments bring to all of us? Be specific.
And, if I can ask a second question, why did you think this attempt at replying to me would go any better than the others? Are you just a glutton for punishment and can’t find anywhere else to get it?
The Indianapolis Star has been in a steady decline ever since Gannett bought it . My father was a press operator at the Star. I was a paper delivery carrier for nine years. I was a regular reader until 6 months ago . We stopped the paper subscription when we went to visit our daughter and help her with the arrival of our new granddaughter while our active duty Navy son-in-law-law was away on a deployment.
I found that the 2 community news papers in Coronado California , a town of about 20,000 people were much more interesting than what the Star had become at home.
The IBJ is a better local news source than the Gannett Star .
Agree – IBJ is at least a real local publication, unlike the Star which is just a corporate outpost with loose local ties. Let my subscription lapse several years ago and haven’t missed it at all.
Gannett is the problem.
Among the current problems is that even in an era where digital should be the focus of their content, their websites and mobile apps are total trash.
IBJ should buy the plant as its efforts continue to grow statewide and keep the workers employed.
As far as newsmedia is concerned, printing plants are increasingly becoming as relevant as fax machines. I can’t imagine IBJ’s print subscriber base is doing anything but shrinking.
Well there goes any chance of any Sports stories that occur the day before, getting any coverage.
Will be real interesting how the Star covers the Colts next season.
What will the Monday morning issues say? Colts. 1:00pm. Late game
Folks like Mike Chappell or Stephen Holder are still out there. You just have to go elsewhere to read them.
“Unwavering commitment”. Right. Once Gannett took over, the Star became little more substantial than a high school paper. And now they don’t even allow comments any more. Done.
Agree with all the comments. Gannett is the problem. They don’t care about Indianapolis, just the bottom line. Nor do they care about print subscriptions, everything digital. Sad!
A dying medium that is about 48 hours to late to everything!
Moving printing operations to a different location is noteworthy, but completely irrelevant to their content and product, which has been garbage for over a decade. The fact that half these comments are lamenting print delivery issues speaks volumes about what is left of their readership base. I don’t know that a daily newspaper in any format is viable these days, but I do know that flipping off huge chunks of your market with both hands is a bad move. For the “business journal” readers crying about jobs and only in it for the money— spoiler alert— every owner of the Star has been “in it for the money”. The Gannett model is just not working
I read the digital version of the Star but unfortunately, it has the same cutoff time as the print version. So nothing local is any more current on their digital paper. Their coverage also heavily leans to only one political perspective.
I had Star routes in the late 50s and early 60s, and I also had Times and News routes. Well, those days are long gone, and the print Star today is the size of an ad paper. When they started charging $98 for seven day print delivery I moved to the digital subscription. As someone said, that format is frustrating, and the articles are rarely about local news. How long will the Star last, as so many other papers have already ceased operation. As I approach eighty, there are many changes that have descended on us, many are sad reminders of what we had.
Why don’t “smart” people admit the obvious/ inevitable and go ahead with shuttering this once great icon of a daily. Yes, people will be affected. But as many democrats have proclaimed, “They can learn to code”.