About | Press | Marketplace Announces New Hosts

(Saint Paul, Minn.) Two award-winning journalists, Tess Vigeland and Kai Ryssdal, have been added as hosts for Marketplace Morning Report TM (MMR). In addition, the program has expanded to seven reports, heard each weekday morning on public radio stations across the nation. These changes reflect Marketplace's commitment to providing timely news for listeners-by providing West Coast listeners with MMR reports throughout the morning-and to recruiting the best talent for its programming.

Each Marketplace Morning Report delivers a global business newscast and a hard-hitting feature-with the fresh, engaging approach of its sister program, MarketplaceTM. These programs are carried by more than 320 public radio stations nationwide and are heard by more than 4.7 million people each day.

Jim Russell, General Manager of Marketplace Productions, explains, "Marketplace Morning Report is our fastest-growing program, showing an incredible 31 percent increase in audience in the last year. We're delighted to be able to grow the Morning Report-from five daily feeds to seven-to better serve stations, especially those in the West and Midwest. We're also very pleased to have two new strong hosts leading the charge. We're confident they will play a significant role as Marketplace and Marketplace Morning Report continue to define public radio business and economic news."

Kai Ryssdal was the morning news anchor at KQED in San Francisco, and he reported and produced news features and spots for the daily and magazine editions of The California Report, KQED's signature news show. Named a National Press Foundation Fellow by the Wharton Seminar for Business Journalists, Ryssdal also received a Northern California RTNDA Award in the Best Light Feature category.

A veteran of several years in the diplomatic corps, Ryssdal served as consul for the U.S. Embassy in Canada and then Beijing and was a political/military affairs officer at the Pentagon. His international background, combined with his language fluency in French and Mandarin Chinese, give him a strong foundation for international business reporting.

At Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), Tess Vigeland's reporting captured some of the nation's largest protests against the Gulf War. She covered the infamous Oregon figure skater Tonya Harding, and she served as a reporter for National Public Radio's weekly sports program, Only A Game.

Vigeland has received numerous awards, including five Associated Press awards and three from the Society of Professional Journalists. She won First Place in the hard news features category from the Public Radio News Directors, Inc. (PRNDI) for her story on the prison suicide of John Salvi, the abortion clinic shooter. For her coverage of the Senator Bob Packwood scandal, she received CPB's Silver Award.

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Marketplace is produced at the Frank Stanton Studios in Los Angeles by Minnesota Public Radio's Marketplace Productions, in association with the University of Southern California. The program is distributed worldwide by PRI, Public Radio International. The program is broadcast by more than 320 public radio stations, and is heard around the world via American Forces Radio & Television Service. PRI also makes the program available via World Radio Network (WRN), a direct broadcast satellite channel serving Europe, Asia and Africa.

Marketplace is made possible by exclusive corporate underwriter GE "and its nearly 300,000 employees worldwide who believe that understanding the global economy is everyone's business," and by Fannie Mae, "the company that helps put the dream of homeownership within reach for millions of American families." Additional funding is by Korn/Ferry International, the Economist newspapers, Reuters, Westlaw, Dow Jones Interactive and public radio stations nationwide.

Business of the Arts reports are made possible by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. Global coverage on Marketplace is funded in part by Phillips Petroleum Company and Guidant Corporation. Marketplace Japan coverage is made possible by grants from the U.S. Japan Foundation, the Center for Global Partnership and the Freeman Foundation. Support for Technology coverage is provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The Health Desk on Marketplace is supported in part by a major grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Marketplace Morning Report is made possible by GE and Fannie Mae, with additional support from Futurestep, Korn/ Ferry International, Merck, Medtronic Foundation and West Group.

Minnesota Public Radio® operates a radio network serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding state and produces local, regional and national programming for radio and Internet audiences. With 87,000 members, it has the largest listener membership of any community-supported public radio network in the United States. MPR produces more national programming than any other station-based public radio network. National programs include A Prairie Home Companion®, Sound Money®, The Savvy Traveler®, and Classical 24®, a live, nationally broadcast classical music service. MPR is part of a larger family of companies within the parent nonprofit, American Public Media Group-a national nonprofit organization whose purpose is to develop resources, services and systems to support public media for public service.

For additional background on Minnesota Public Radio and Marketplace Productions: www.mpr.org

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