Star publisher: Thank you, Indy, for a great year

This story was originally published on Oct. 4, 2015.

I believe in celebrations. Birthdays, anniversaries, accomplishments and milestones — heck, I celebrate every Friday that it’s the weekend. Life treats us to so many unexpected, not-so-great things that I think it’s important to stop and take note of special moments and, yes, celebrate.

This week at The Star we are celebrating one such special moment. Our one-year anniversary. Our first year in our new space at the corner of Meridian and Georgia streets in the heart of Downtown Indy (and remember, we were in our last space for 107 years!).

After one year, I can say this: We LOVE our new space.

We love the location — the access to Downtown, Georgia Street and the mall. We feel like we are truly at the heart of our great city.

We love how the new space has transformed how we work. Our entire staff is on the same floor in a big, open floor plan. We have only a few offices and all have glass walls and none are bigger than about 10 x 10. We have lots of gathering spaces and places to hang out, whether it’s the coffee bar or the employee café. The result? We see more of each other and more often.

Our new space also has helped us to meet new friends, collaborate more, and find even more ways to serve our readers and our customers. And last but not least, it’s inspired us to have more fun. Cornhole tournaments (I lost early in the brackets), bands and Monday morning dance sessions are just some of the things we have been inspired to do.

Coffee+News meeting at the Indianapolis Star

Our work to help our community connect, act and thrive also has been inspired by our new space. We’ve engaged you with events like never before — whether it’s Style Swap or our public forum on racial profiling or Coffee and News — our ongoing series of public news meetings where everyone is invited to attend and ask questions. And, of course, we continue to tell the stories that matter in our community — stories such as our investigations into the BMV and most recently why our roads are crumbling as well as our coverage of the burgeoning food and craft beer scene and our expanded things to do content. (By the way, check out our new Things to Do app for a day-by-day guide to the city’s best events.)

These stories and others have led to record engagement from you — our readers. You have visited IndyStar.com 144,000,122 times in the last year and read 361,801,093 pages of our news online. We are delighted that you continue to turn to us as the No. 1 local online news provider. (That’s not just me saying it. Independent research company comScore confirms it.)

Here’s to a great year! And here’s to many, many more. We love what we do, and we thank you for your loyalty.

Karen Ferguson Fuson is the president and publisher of the Indy Star.