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Barbara Henry returns to Indianapolis.

Twenty-six years after she began her career as an intern at the Indianapolis News , Barbara Henry takes the reins as president and publisher of its surviving sister paper, the Indianapolis Star . Henry, 48, spent the last four years as publisher of the Des Moines Register . Her new appointment was announced by Gannett Co. on August 1, the day it took over the Star's parent company, Central Newspapers Inc., in a six-newspaper deal that includes the Arizona Republic . Henry's predecessor, Dale Duncan , becomes a general executive in Gannett's Newspaper Division. Among Henry's first tasks will be overseeing construction of a $70 million production facility, a project similar to one she just completed in Des Moines. She also aims to boost circulation, which has slipped. "We have a new editor, Tim Franklin , making many improvements in news content," Henry says. "I'm a believer in quality news sells more papers." Henry can claim a couple of "firsts" in Indianapolis: As an intern, she was a member of the first class of Pulliam Journalism Fellows, a program started by the family that ran the paper for the last 56 years; now, she's the paper's first female publisher. Henry's move opens the door for another longtime Gannett employee to come home. Mary Stier, the Register's new president and publisher, moved to the Hawkeye State when she started school at the University of Iowa in 1974. She stuck around Iowa City until 1991, working her way up to publisher of Gannett's Iowa City Press-Citizen. Stier has been publisher of the chain's Rockford Register Star in Illinois for the last nine years. Gannett also promoted Stier, 43, to senior group president of its Midwest Newspaper Group.