The plum lipstick looks tantalizing. A fawn leather
handbag seems just right for a casual evening. Not to mention the
svelte model, whose black polka-dotted top screams haute
couture.
Neatly displayed in the pages of The Indianapolis
Star, these alluring pictures -- a far cry from the paper's
conservative image -- represent its key source of income:
advertising.
With a weekday circulation of more than 250,000
papers, The Star enjoys a hefty chunk of Indianapolis' $300 million
advertising market. It competes with seven television stations,
more than a dozen radio stations and a handful of print media for
currently tight advertising dollars.
On the creative side, the paper has taken giant
strides in the past 100 years. It opened a new $72 million printing
facility last year that helps print sharper photos. But even
before, the newspaper always has been ahead of the curve --
graduating from black-and-white hand illustrations to color in the
early 1970s.
"The advent of color brought more revenues and
advertisers got more audience," said Alan Judkins, who worked at
The Star's ad department for nearly 50 years before retiring in
1992.
Call Star reporter Gargi Chakrabarty at
1-317-444-6019.
