 | |
| Company type | Non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 2004; 21 years ago (2004-08) inCollegeville, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
Number of employees | 477 |
| Parent | |
| Website | www |
American Public Media (APM) is an American company thatproduces and distributespublic radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type afterNPR.[1] Its non-profit parent,American Public Media Group, also owns and operates radio stations inMinnesota andCalifornia. Its station brands includeMinnesota Public Radio andSouthern California Public Radio. Based inSt. Paul,Minnesota, APM is best known for distribution of the national financial news programMarketplace.[2][3]
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Formerly, much of American Public Media's programming content was distributed byPublic Radio International, which itself was named American Public Radio, or APR, until July 1, 1994. APR was formed by four stations—theMinnesota Public Radio network,WGBH in Boston,WNYC in New York, andKUSC in Los Angeles—to distributeA Prairie Home Companion. PRI owns and produces numerous programs today, but still also distributes diverse programming from many sources. In contrast, APM, which was founded in 2004, predominantly distributes content that it owns and produces itself; exceptions includeThe Story with Dick Gordon (which ended production in October 2013), the distribution to US stations of theBBC World Service, and theBBC Proms broadcasts fromRoyal Albert Hall inLondon.[citation needed]
The split happened as MPR and PRI began seeing each other more as potential competitors after MPR lost the partnership to WGBH to produceThe World, and MPR purchased PRI-distributedMarketplace for its own distribution channels.[4]
APM Reports is theinvestigative journalism unit of APM,[5][6] based in St. Paul, Minnesota.[7] Established in November 2015, APM Reports' journalists are drawn fromMinnesota Public Radio and the formerAmerican RadioWorks.[6] It producesdocumentary as well as investigative journalism.[6] In 2019, APM Reports journalistsMadeleine Baran and Samara Freemark received aPolk Award for season 2 ofIn the Dark, their investigation into the case ofCurtis Flowers, who was tried six times for a quadruple murder inWinona, Mississippi in 1996.[7][8] This was the first Polk Award given to apodcast.[7][9] TheIn the Dark journalists also won twoPeabody Awards, in 2016 and 2020, for the first and second seasons ofIn the Dark.[10] In 2023, the APM Reports educational team, with journalistEmily Hanford, won aEdward R. Murrow Award (Radio Television Digital News Association) forSold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.
APM Research Lab is the research anddata journalism unit of American Public Media.[11] The Lab was established in 2017 under the leadership of American Public Media Group's CEO Jon McTaggart and EVPDave Kansas with the hiring of its inaugural Managing Partner, Craig Helmstetter.[12] The Lab was created to further strengthen APM's commitment to factual information as indicated by the tagline "bringing facts into focus."[13] The unit has conducted several research projects in collaboration with newsrooms within the American Public Media Group and beyond, including partnerships withMarketplace,Minnesota Public Radio News, andPBS/Frontline and the Texas Newsroom.[14][15][16]
In 2020 the Lab began publishing a project calledColor of Coronavirus that tracks deaths due toCOVID-19 by race and ethnicity in each U.S. state as well as the nation as a whole.[17] This project has been cited hundreds of times, including byThe Guardian,The Atlantic,Newsweek,The Washington Post,The New York Times, and theJournal of the American Medical Association.[18][19][20][21][22]
Until July 2015, APM operatedClassical South Florida (WMLV-FM 89.7), which was sold toEducational Media Foundation, a California-based religious broadcasting company that airs contemporary Christian music; it now brands itself as aK-Love station.[23][24]
APM also distributes:[5]
Several specials are also distributed by APM on a less frequent basis, including a number ofChristmas programs,Giving Thanks atThanksgiving, and theBBC Proms.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Peabody Awards | Podcast & Radio | Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong | Nominated | [25] |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
| Other | |
