Indianapolis Star cutting stand-alone biz section

The Indianapolis Star plans to get rid of its stand-alone business news section, moving business stories into another section, confirms editor Dennis Ryerson to Talking Biz News.

Ryerson said: “We will continue to commit the same staff resources to covering business as we are doing now.  We haven’t completed any final work on changes, but want strong business stories on section covers.  And by the way, our staffing level is at around 260, about the same as it was when I came here four years ago.”

The other papers that have cut their stand-alone business sections are the Columbus Dispatch, the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Akron Beacon-Journal. Earlier this year, the Star joined its business and metro desks together under one editor.

Jennifer Wagner wrote on the Taking Down Words site, “At a meeting this afternoon, the Star’s top brass announced that, despite being one of the few major dailies in the country to increase circulation in the last quarter, the paper will be deep-sixing its stand-alone business section in short order.

“Come on down, Indianapolis Business Journal. You’ve got the golden ticket.

“The independent business section will either be folded internally into the metro section, or its news will be hybridized into some as-yet-unnamed product. Metriz, perhaps?

Read more here. The Indianapolis Business Journal has also posted a short item about the decision in which the vice president of the local newspaper guild called it a “risky move.”

Interestingly, last week the Star announced the addition of a business section once a week in its regional Carmel Star paper.