Minnesota Public Radio: 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)

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO (MPR) began in 1967 as a single radio station at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Today, MPR is internationally recognized as a leading public service media company, developing and broadcasting local, regional, national, and international news and information and classical music programs, and creating extensive content available worldwide on the Internet at www.mpr.org.

Throughout its history, MPR's broadcast and Internet programming has won more than 790 awards in the fields of journalism, education, humanities, the arts, and broadcasting. These include four Peabody awards and two Edward R. Murrow awards. In 2000, MPR won the national Scripps Howard Foundation award for journalistic excellence in electronic media.

MPR's Minnesota-based operation includes a network of 30 stations and 19 translators, reaching 98 percent of the state's geography and border communities in seven states and Canadian provinces. Audiences throughout the region receive dual broadcast streams, one dedicated to news and information, the other to classical music.

NEWS AND INFORMATION
MPR's news division - the largest broadcast news staff in the state - employs 70 people, including 15 reporters dedicated to rural communities, and numerous specialists in business, education, politics, and the arts. With the goal of creating news that is objective, accurate, balanced, and relevant, MPR was voted "the most trusted news source" in the region (University of Wisconsin - River Falls survey, 1992).

CLASSICAL MUSIC
The classical music service draws on MPR's collection of 50,000 compact discs and LPs, one of the largest in the United States, and an experienced and knowledgeable broadcast staff. MPR's engineers and hosts also record more than 200 live performances each year for broadcast on the MPR network and beyond.

LOYAL AUDIENCE
MPR's regional audience has grown in size and loyalty to form the largest market share of any public radio network. Nearly 15 percent of Minnesotans over the age of 12 listen to MPR every week. These listeners contribute financially through membership, which forms the single largest source of revenue in MPR's $25.4 million operating budget. In fact, with a population base of only 4.5 million residents, MPR has nonetheless developed the largest membership base (more than 87,000) of any public radio organization in the United States. In addition to their financial support, listeners contribute more than 13,000 volunteer hours each year to support MPR's programming.

NATIONAL PROGRAMS
MPR's national broadcast programs, initially produced for its extensive regional network, form the largest group of nationally distributed programs of any public radio network in the United States, and have helped establish the audience expectation for quality, integrity, and vitality that distinguishes the public radio industry. Fourteen distinct programs, such as Sound Money, A Prairie Home Companion, The Splendid Table, and Saint Paul Sunday, make up MPR's national production unit. Together, these broadcasts reach an estimated 7.6 million listeners weekly, and help draw more than two million weekly "hits" to the MPR family of Web sites.

MPR AND MINNESOTA COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
MPR is part of a larger family of companies within the parent nonprofit, Minnesota Communications Group (MCG), which houses not only MPR, but several other entities. These include the Fitzgerald Theater, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the newly formed nonprofit organization, Southern California Public Radio, based in Pasadena, California. MCG's board also oversees the operation of three for-profit companies: Greenspring, Minnesota Monthly Publications, and the Minnesota News Network.

The success of these for-profit businesses has helped support the activities of the nonprofits within the group. In 1998, Greenspring sold its principal asset, Rivertown Trading, in a purchase that allowed MPR to add $85.6 million to its permanent endowment. This endowment is enabling new initiatives within MPR to strengthen and expand local, regional, and national service through the development of new nonprofit programs. MCG's unique structure has been the subject of many articles, including one in The Chronicle of Philanthropy that said, "For many public broadcasting officials, MPR's product-marketing business is regarded as a triumph of entrepreneurialism, and a model for other groups."

Marketplace Productions will report to Minnesota Public Radio as part of the MPR National Programs portfolio because, as national programs, Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report, and The Savvy Traveler are closely aligned with other national shows.