Marketplace: An Overview

MPR Acquires Marketplace Productions

• MPR: An Overview

• MPR History

• MPR Commitment to Minnesota

• MPR National Program List

• Marketplace: An Overview

• Marketplace History

• Complete set of above documents in PDF format (Readable with the free Acrobat Reader.)

• MPR's National Program Data (PDF format)

• U.S. Map of MPR Programs (PDF format)

MARKETPLACE PRODUCTIONS is the 11-year-old nonprofit producer of Marketplace, public radio's only national series about business, the global economy, and finance. Marketplace Productions also produces Marketplace Morning Report, nine-minute segments that air five times each morning, and The Savvy Traveler, a weekly hour-long travel magazine that began in 1997 and features host Rudy Maxa.

Launched on January 2, 1989, from Long Beach, California, Marketplace was the first, and is still the only, daily national news program to come from the West Coast. Its location in Los Angeles provided Marketplace easier access to the Pacific Rim and has encouraged the staff to develop their own voice, one not overwhelmed by the traditionally Eastern-dominated media. Rich in creativity, but in need of a financial bedrock, Marketplace moved to the campus of the University of Southern California in 1990. That same year, General Electric signed on, and continues, as exclusive corporate underwriter.

Marketplace has become the fresh sound of radio business reporting. It has been described as smart, literate, witty, well-informed, hip, irreverent, and the business show for the rest of us. The Marketplace staff is headed by General Manager Jim Russell, who conceived and led the creation of the show. Russell is an award-winning journalist and a former All Things Considered executive producer with more than 30 years of experience in broadcasting. Executive Producer J. J. Yore has been a reporter, editor, and broadcast producer for nearly 20 years. Hosts David Brancaccio and Cheryl Glaser are experienced journalists who bring listeners lively and engaging information about the fascinating world of global business.

	Marketplace hosts David Brancaccio and Cheryl Glaser

With six domestic bureaus (Boston, Ann Arbor/Detroit, Cleveland, New York, Portland, and Washington, DC) and two international bureaus (London and Tokyo), Marketplace is a truly global program using business and economics as its twin lenses to better view and understand the world. It distinguishes itself from general news programming by taking a broader view of business, and defining its content as any story that deals with money, which most of the world's stories do. Marketplace emphasizes interpretive reporting and analysis for its targeted audience of business novices. This "behind-the-news" approach places a premium on stories that attempt to explain the "why?," the "so what?," and the "what's next?"

Since its premiere, Marketplace has quintupled its audience, which now totals more than 3.7 million listeners per week on more than 290 stations. Marketplace is distributed nationwide by Public Radio International (PRI) and is heard around the world via American Forces Radio & Television Service and on World Radio Network, a direct broadcast satellite channel serving Europe, Asia, and Africa. In addition to its extensive radio bureau network, Marketplace is also affiliated with The Economist Magazine and Reuters.

Praise for both Marketplace and The Savvy Traveler abound. Early in its history, Marketplace was named "best business program" in the United States by the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review. More recently, Marketplace received the 1997 Loeb Award in the radio category, the 1997 Clarion Award for "Regular News" and in January 1998, the highly coveted duPont-Columbia Award for "Excellence in Overall Show." In 2000, Marketplace's Japan Bureau won the Overseas Press Club's "Best Business Reporting in Broadcast Media" award. According to Washingtonian Magazine, Marketplace is in the top four most-listened-to programs by business leaders. The Station Resource Group reported that, according to industry leaders, Marketplace is one of five "must-have" programs for public radio stations. The Savvy Traveler is a 2000 recipient of the Gracie Allen Award, presented by the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.

In April 2000, Marketplace Productions was acquired by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), one of the nation's most successful public media companies and producer of more radio programs for national distribution than any other public radio station in the country. The acquisition of Marketplace Productions adds three more strong programs to MPR's already impressive resume of celebrated shows, including A Prairie Home Companion and Saint Paul Sunday.