American Public Media Group
Encyclopedia
American Public Media Group (APMG), formerly Minnesota Communications Group, is the non-profit organization that is the parent of non-profits Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Public Radio , is the flagship National Public Radio member network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, Classical Music and The Current, MPR operates a 42-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest serving over 8 million people...

, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC 89.3 FM), and Classical South Florida (WKCP
WKCP
WKCP , Classical South Florida, is a classical music-formatted radio station in Miami, Florida. This listener supported, nonprofit public radio station is owned by American Public Media Group, the parent nonprofit support organization of Minnesota Public Radio...

 89.7 FM), along with the for-profit Greenspring Company
Greenspring Company
The Greenspring Company is the for-profit subsidiary of the non-profit American Public Media Group, and the parent company of the for-profit organization Greenspring Media Group, publishers of Minnesota Monthly and other publications...

, as well as MPR's Fitzgerald Theater
Fitzgerald Theater
The Fitzgerald Theater is the oldest existing stage venue in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the home of American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion. It was one of many theaters built by the Shubert Theatre Corporation, and was initially named the Sam S. Shubert Theater...

. Profits from the Greenspring Company are funneled through the company and used to shore up the public funding of MPR, although SCPR apparently does not receive any funding from APMG. Bill Kling
Bill Kling
William Hugh Kling is an American businessman who created Minnesota Public Radio . Kling is a millionaire, partly due to participating in an incentive plan related to the companies of the Greenspring Company, an MPR-affiliated for-profit corporation.-Education:Kling holds a BA in Economics from...

 is president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

.

Based in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...

, American Public Media Group is ultimately a parent organization of—but distinct from—American Public Media
American Public Media
American Public Media is the second largest producer of public radio programs in the United States of America after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and operates radio stations in Minnesota, California, and Florida. Its station brands are Minnesota Public Radio,...

, the distribution arm of Minnesota Public Radio that produces shows like Speaking of Faith
Speaking of Faith
On Being is a weekly public radio program about "religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas", produced by American Public Media...

and Marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...

and distributes A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...

.

APMG directly operates the Pretty Good Goods Catalog, The Lake Wobegon USA Store at the Mall of America
Mall of America
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...

, and Public Radio Market, an Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

 affiliate. Again, money from these operations appears to feed into Minnesota Public Radio.

Critics have complained that Minnesota Public Radio promotes content that is available through its affiliated organizations at the expense of others, though the business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

 has proved to work well and elements of it are being duplicated by other public radio organizations around the country.

In 2004, the combined revenue of APMG, MPR and Greenspring was US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

84.9 million, making it the largest non-profit in Minnesota's arts and culture sector. http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5788715.html

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK