The Indianapolis Star (also known asIndyStar) is a morning dailynewspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, inIndianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when theIndianapolis News ceased publication. It won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2021 and thePulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting twice, in 1975 and 1991. It is currently owned byGannett.[3]
TheStar marquee on the headquarters in downtown IndianapolisHeadquarters in downtown Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis Star was founded on June 6, 1903,[4] byMuncie industrialist George F. McCulloch as competition to two otherIndianapolis dailies, theIndianapolis Journal and theIndianapolis Sentinel. It acquired theJournal a year and two days later, and bought theSentinel in 1906. Daniel G. Reid purchased theStar in 1904 and hired John Shaffer as publisher, later replacing him. In the ensuing court proceedings, Shaffer emerged as the majority owner of the paper in 1911 and served as publisher and editor until his death in 1943.[5]
Central Newspapers, Inc. and its owner,Eugene C. Pulliam—maternal grandfather of future Vice PresidentDan Quayle—purchased theStar from Shaffer's estate on April 25, 1944, and adopted initiatives to increase the paper's circulation. In 1944, theStar had trailed the eveningIndianapolis News but by 1948 had become Indiana's largest newspaper.[5]
In 1948, Pulliam purchased theNews and combined the business, mechanical, advertising, and circulation operations of the two papers, with theNews moving into theStar's building in 1950. The editorial and news operations remained separate.Eugene S. Pulliam took over as publisher upon the death of his father in 1975, a role he retained until his own death in 1999.[5]
In September 1995, the newsroom staffs of theStar and theNews merged.[4] In 1999, theNews ceased publication, leaving theStar as the only major daily paper in Indianapolis. Soon thereafter the trustees of Central Newspapers, Inc., the owner of theStar and other newspapers in Indiana and Arizona, began investigating the sale of the small chain to a larger entity.[5] In 2000, theGannett Company acquired the paper, amongst others when it purchased Central Newspapers for $2.6 billion,[4][6][7] leaving Indianapolis with no locally owned newspaper other than theIndianapolis Recorder, a weekly mainly circulated in the African-American community.
On July 27, 2012, theStar announced that it would relocate from its headquarters at 307 North Pennsylvania Street, and later that the new location would be the formerNordstrom department store inCircle Centre Mall. The move took place from the summer to fall of 2014. The old location had been used since 1907.[8]
AfterLarry Nassar, USA Gymnastics national team osteopathic physician, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison in January 2018 for sexually abusing female athletes, the prosecutor in the case specifically praised theStar for uncovering Nassar's decades-long history of abuse.[9] TheStar began its investigative reporting into Nassar and USA Gymnastics in 2016 and published its first related article in August 2016 when it shed light on USA Gymnastics' failure to properly investigate credible complaints of sexual abuse or pass the complaints on to police. After the August 2016 story, one of Nassar's victims,Rachael Denhollander, approached the Star about Nassar and USA Gymnastics' failure to investigate her complaint about him, resulting in a September 2016 story on Nassar specifically. After the Nassar story, theStar was approached by many of Nassar's victims who shared similar stories of abuse. Nassar was charged with criminal sexual conduct in November 2016.[9]Athlete A, a documentary released in 2020, follows the journalists as they investigate the Nassar.[10]
The Indianapolis Star at one time had the largest and most advanced printing presses in the nation.[13] The Pulliam Production Center at 8278 N. Georgetown Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis cost $72 million and covers 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2).[14] It opened in November 1995 as a packaging center and started printing numerous newspapers includingThe Indianapolis Star in 2001.[15] The press hall that houses the fourMAN Roland Geoman presses has 30,672 square feet (2,850 m2) on two levels. Each of the presses weighs 2,100 short tons (1,900 t), stands seven stories tall, and can print 75,000 papers an hour.[14]
In January 2023, Gannett laid off 50 employees at the Pulliam Production Center. At the time the facility employed 145 people.[16] A year later Gannett announced the center would close April 9 and printing ofThe Indianapolis Star would move to the company's press site inPeoria, Illinois.[15]
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984
