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Anthony Schoettle

Phone:
317-472-5374

Email:
aschoettle@ibj.com

Reporter, #IBJtech newsletter author

Technology, venture capital, media and marketing

Schoettle grew up in Indianapolis, graduating from Southport High School and Indiana University. He then departed on a tour of middle Indiana, reporting for papers in Greenwood, Frankfort, Columbus and Franklin before landing at IBJ in 1998. At his previous jobs, he spent a decade as a political and government reporter. Beyond writing, Schoettle’s passions include animals and wildlife, watching all manner of television and long-distance cycling and running. Though he put away his trumpet many years ago, he remains an avid music fan. Schoettle shares his home in Southport with his wife, Elizabeth, three salty dogs and three sweet cats. Preferring to live in a “park-like setting,” one of his primary goals each spring and summer is to see how seldom he can mow his front lawn.

Articles

Finally, a new stadium, and not just for football:

After years of angling and months of negotiating, city and state officials finally came to an agreement with the Indianapolis Colts to build a $625 million retractableroof stadium south of the RCA Dome. With a drum roll and a crowd of 1,200 fans and dignitaries counting down-three, two, one-Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mayor Bart Peterson and others shoveled a little dirt on the future home of the city’s new stadium in a formal ground breaking Sept. 21….

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A game competitor: Sales surge for maker of Gnip Gnop, What’s in Ned’s Head?

The atmosphere is lighthearted at the westside headquarters of Fundex Games Inc., where ideas sketched on cocktail napkins become award-winning games like What’s in Ned’s Head? and Alfredo’s Food Fight. And why not be happy at a company whose more tasteful games, such as Gnip Gnop and Phase 10, have helped grow revenue from $4.6 million to $20 million in the last decade? If there’s any nail-biting at Fundex it’s because this is the most important time of the year….

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Star’s weekly battles Nuvo for young readers: As Intake turns 2, independent tabloid fights on

Tracking the readership of a free newspaper is like trying to bottle a vapor. What’s not difficult to determine is advertisers’ desire to target young consumers. “Advertisers increasingly want that young, upwardly mobile audience,” said newspaper analyst John Morton. “And they’ll pay to be a part of a product that can deliver it.” Central Indiana’s two biggest newspapers aimed at readers with a strong interest in the city’s night life and only a fleeting concern about long-term savings plans have…

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Family follows Trusty path: Local manufacturer uses lessons from innovative founder

Trusty-Cook Inc. looks like an old-school manufacturer, even though its inventions are cutting-edge. The company’s 15,000-squarefoot factory on 59th Street east of Fort Harrison State Park looks more like an inventor’s workshop than a state-of-the-art operation intent on pounding out millions of widgets. Trusty-Cook owners eschew hot trends like Japanese-imported lean manufacturing, and aren’t apt to use catch phrases like “just-in-time delivery.” Despite the company’s throwback demeanor, when it comes to working with urethane, Trusty-Cook is revolutionary. And its latest…

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High risk could mean high payoff for ad agency: Young & Laramore eschews local, regional work to take aim at national targets

Locally based advertising agency Young & Laramore won another national account in November, and with the announcement unveiled a strategy to eschew local and regional work to shoot for the industry’s biggest targets. Minnesota-based Red Wing Shoe Co. chose Young & Laramore to help it launch a line of casual footwear targeted at a mainstream men’s and women’s market. The 100-year-old shoemaker has made a name for itself with its hiking, hunting and work boots. Though terms were not disclosed,…

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Industry races to promote itself: Statewide motorsports group hopes to thwart competition from other U.S. markets

Area motorsports leaders are gearing up for another run at unifying the industry and assuring the region retains its status as one of the world’s leading motorsports markets. Organizers of the latest effort promise they won’t spin their wheels this time around. They’re casting a wider net-going statewide with a motorsports association-to attract more members and build more clout with the media, local and state lawmakers, and service providers, such as banks and insurance companies. The Indiana Motorsports Association Inc….

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Hispanic market his target: Ponce Publicidad founder focuses on fast-growing demographic group

The Bank of Central America is moving into Florida and other parts of the southeast United States. While this development might not seem significant for central Indiana business operators, Roberto Ponce thinks it’s a sign. “The burgeoning Hispanic market within the U.S. is becoming a major factor,” said Ponce, president of Indianapolis-based Ponce Publicidad. “If domestic businesses don’t realize that and reach out to this segment, others from beyond our borders will.” Ponce thinks his firm is uniquely positioned to…

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Marketing firm nabs big East Coast client: MillerWhite uses unusual approach to beat Massachusetts incumbent

MillerWhite LLC, a 21-person advertising and marketing agency with offices in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, is the new agency of record for Boston-based Ameresco Inc. Ameresco, which helps clients in almost 40 U.S. and Canadian markets reduce energy costs by modernizing infrastructure and managing power supply, is listed on Inc. magazine’s fastestgrowing private firms list. The company, which generates annual revenue of almost $250 million, is poised for explosive growth, industry observers believe. Though financial terms of the deal were…

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Higher stadium price looms: Hurricanes likely to blow up costs for construction projects

The Gulf Coast hurricanes may push construction costs sharply higher for several years, experts say, potentially adding millions of dollars in costs to the $625 million football stadium as well as other public projects in their early stages. “Even a 1-percent cost increase on a project like [the stadium] is significant, and the effects from these hurricanes is likely to be higher than that,” said Patrick Barkey, an economist and director of economic and policy studies at the Miller College…

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Incentive search shot down: University Loft eyes Tennessee after Hancock County spurns request to create a TIF district

Hancock County Commissioners’ unwillingness to consider creating a Tax Increment Financing district has sent a growing Indianapolis-based manufacturer looking for a new expansion site, possibly out of state. University Loft Co. CEO James N. Jannetides said he was continually rebuffed over a months-long process to get the tax incentives his company needed to bring 200-plus jobs to the county directly east of Marion County. Now Jannetides said he might look to consolidate manufacturing in Tennessee where he opened a plant…

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WISH, WRTV look to profit from national TV ratings flip: Local news king, WTHR, deals with lagging NBC ratings

Though television broadcasting is known to be a cyclical business, cycles that turn TV ratings upside down are unusual. With ABC and CBS overtaking NBC nationally, it is an especially interesting-and anxious-time for local affiliates. WTHR-TV Channel 13 has been the local news rating leader the last six years, but WISH-TV Channel 8 and WRTV-TV Channel 6 see this fall and winter as an opportune time to turn the tide. One week into the critical Nov. 2-30 ratings sweeps, ABC…

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Could race teams bridge divide without series’ blessing?: Ganassi pushing for IRL-Champ Car cross-pollination

The pull of some Champ Car markets is so strong, it has the owner of a prominent Indy Racing League team talking about launching a cooperative effort with a team from the rival open-wheel racing series. And he’s urging other IRL teams to do the same. Chip Ganassi last month proposed IRL and Champ Car teams partner so they can compete in both series’ biggest races and perhaps even square off for a cross-series championship. Ganassi told Speed TV that…

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Ice Miller experiment turns financial corner: IMSS is only area sports agency licensed by NFL, NBA

At a time when many sports agents are getting squeezed out by mega-agencies with Shaquille O’Neal’s mass and New York Yankee-like resources, a small Indianapolis firm is becoming a real player. A curious experiment launched in August 2001 by local law firm Ice Miller has become a profitable venture despite long odds and a slow start. “It’s fair to say that launching this effort has been harder than we thought,” said IM Sports Services LLC Chairman John R. Thornburgh. “After…

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PLAN OF ATTACK: Anderson’s leaders are working to exorcise the ghosts of GM

Four miles and decades of history separate the Anderson exits along Interstate 69 northeast of Indianapolis. Empty General Motors Corp. plants-as much a thing of the past as single-class basketball-cast ominous shadows at Exit 26, once Anderson’s front door. To the west, closer to Indianapolis, is Exit 22 and the trappings of the future: millions of dollars in new infrastructure, a new business park, and the state’s largest business incubator-tools Anderson officials think they need to turn this rust-belt poster…

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Incentives abound to help backfill old GM sites:

Anderson officials are taking advantage of two incentive programs-one state and the other federal-to lure users to former General Motors Corp. factories. A collection of vacant buildings and empty lots where more than 24,000 GM employees once worked was designated last December as a state Community Revitalization Enhancement District, or CReED. Anderson is one of only seven Indiana cities to have a CReED, which offers tax advantages to private companies that locate in the district. The program is funded by…

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Theater rehab project symbolic of city’s makeover:

While Anderson officials have focused much energy on Interstate 69 access points and former General Motors Corp. sites and business parks outside the city’s center, they’ve also been carefully rebuilding downtown. In 2002, Anderson Indiana Main Street was formed, and has become active in the last two years recruiting business there and hosting a number of festivals and other events. In recent years, many of the streets have been repaved-some with brick pavers as part of a massive beautification project…

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Lathering up for a buyout?: Local hair care products biz Kenra could fetch $80 million

Kenra LLC, a locally based hair-care products manufacturer that has nearly tripled its revenue in six years, is looking for a buyer. New York-based Giulliani Capital Advisors LLC is helping the 76-year-old company find a suitor, according to sources familiar with the situation. Kenra reported its annual sales doubled last year to $80 million on the strength of a new line called Kenra Platinum, an upscale haircare collection. Company officials told Women’s Wear Daily in March sales could increase another…

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Out-of-state ad agency nabs lottery: Louisville’s Bandy Carroll chosen over native firms

The giggle will soon be gone. Hoosier Lottery officials are eliminating the tag line giggle in their ads. And, more significantly, they’re replacing the local firm that created those ads with a Louisville-based advertising agency. That decision has wiped the smile off many faces in the local advertising community. One local industry executive said agencies here are stunned given the state’s pledge to “buy Indiana.” The Louisville firm, Bandy Carroll Hellige, beat out Bloomington-based Hirons & Company Communications Inc. and…

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Lee, Willis prosper outside limelight: Former WRTV co-anchors run growing public relations firm

News defined the careers of Clyde Lee and Diane Willis for a combined five decades. And it was the nation’s biggest news event of the last decade-9/11-that served as an ominous backdrop for the duo’s first entrepreneurial venture. “We incorporated in August 2001, and less than a month later, 9/11 hit, and we thought, ‘Oh my,'” Lee recalled. But more than four years later, Lee/Willis Communications is still standing-and prospering. The fiscal swoon that followed 9/11 caused many companies to…

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