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Special section • Star Century: 100 years of The Indianapolis Star   Bits and bytes While IndyStar.com serves as the Internet surrogate for the newspaper itself, there are several features available only online. Online-only content includes: • "Ask the Experts" forums, in which Star reporters answer readers' questions. • Interactive polls and quizzes. •Searchable event listings from area community groups. • Comprehensive county, town and neighborhood information. • Searchable ISTEP and SAT results for every school district in the state. • Profiles and background summaries of local people and events written by The Star's library. • Detailed, in-depth sports statistics. • Photo galleries. • Audio and video reports. • An interactive crossword puzzle and customizable TV listings. IndyStar.com vitals •Online presence started in August 1995. • Achieved profitability in 2001. • Attracts more than 1 million visitors and about 16 million page views each month.

Since The Indianapolis Star first ventured onto the "information superhighway" as an auto racing niche site in 1995, its Internet offering -- now known as IndyStar.com -- has achieved something that most traditional "dot-coms" dream of . . .

Profitability.

Since the spring of 2000, traffic through the site has increased 135 percent, attracting more than 1 million visitors and about 16 million page views each month.

The Star's first Internet presence came in August 1995 with SpeedNet, a racing site. Several other niches followed, including Starnews.com (local news), Indiana's Game (Indiana basketball), Colts Central (Indianapolis Colts) and CircleCity.com (entertainment). By 2000, all of the niche sites were merged into Starnews.com. A year later, the site was renamed IndyStar. com to better reflect the identity of The Star. IndyStar.com is regarded as the most viewed media Internet site in the state.

Now, one in four Indianapolis-area Internet users visits IndyStar.com each week, about 80 percent of whom are between 18 and 49 years old, according to Scarborough Research. IndyStar.com ranks as Gannett's fourth-most-read newspaper Internet site, behind leader Phoenix, Detroit and Cincinnati.

One reason traffic has grown so rapidly is the increasing variety of content, said Bob Jonason, director of online services. Another is the credibility of information that comes from a mainstream news source.

The Web site's growth reflects similar success at other newspaper Web sites nationwide. Since 2001, at least half of such sites have made money, according to Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC, a Florida-based consultancy.

Jonason said the site attracts people in the office. "Most of our readers work Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.," he said. "Whereas newspapers sell their most copies on Sundays, our Internet site is read mostly widely throughout the workplace. It's almost a supplement to the newspaper, radio or TV you have at home or listen to driving to or from work."

As traffic at IndyStar.com has grown, so has revenue. Since 2000, it has more than doubled annually, with revenue up more than 50 percent so far this year compared with the same period last year.

"Over the past three years, the site also has become much more aggressive about providing updates throughout the day, which encourages frequent visits," Jonason said. "And the site gets tremendous promotion in The Star, a newspaper with greater reach than all other types of media in central Indiana combined."

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