Bully for Jen Wagner of Taking Down Words, who broke the news yesterday that the Star is deep-sixing its biz section. Biz news will be folded into the "rest" of the paper. Here's the link:

http://takingdownwords.com

Plenty of speculation ensued on Taking Down Words about the reasons, the history, and the fate of biz coverage at the paper, with lots of voices urging Indianapolis Business Journal and other publications to step up their already heroic efforts.

But no truer words were spoken than this observation from Taking Down Words comments section:

"The bottom line is that some bean counter on the Star operating committee figured the total newsprint and ink savings by eliminating 2 pages a day and convinced the other members of the OC that it was the best thing for the bottom line.

"It should have been obvious long ago that the Star does not care about in-depth business reporting. Barb Henry didn't just wake up one day and realize the Star couldn't compete with IBJ. Someone showed her the bottom line savings that this move would mean and she signed off on it - because in this situation it's much easier to cut the costs of printing the business section than it is to try to increase revenue it produces.

"If you believe anything else then you are absolutely delusional."

I agree with these comments. At Gannett, news is business and business is dead.