AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA NAMES PADDY HIRSCH SENIOR PRODUCER, PERSONAL FINANCE, MARKETPLACE

Contact: Tara Schlosser
(651) 290-1436
Tschlosser@americanpublicmedia.org

AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA NAMES PADDY HIRSCHSENIOR PRODUCER, PERSONAL FINANCE, MARKETPLACE

(St. Paul, MN) - November 21, 2011 - American Public Media (APM) has named Paddy Hirsch the new senior producer of personal finance for the entire Marketplace portfolio, including production of Marketplace Money. Hirsch will oversee editorial content for Marketplace Money, hosted by Tess Vigeland, as well as develop new ways to expand personal finance coverage beyond Marketplace Money to all programs and platforms, including Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report, Marketplace Index and online. Hirsch also will continue hosting the Marketplace Whiteboard, a video explainer of financial and economic terms.

"Our latest audience research showed that listeners want to hear more personal finance news from Marketplace," said Deborah Clark, executive producer. "Three years into the economic downturn, people are looking more than ever before for context to understand how the broader economy effects them at the personal level – whether it's how to survive the loss of a job, plan for retirement or weigh the consequences of walking away from a home on which they owe more money than they originally paid."

Hirsch's hire is part of a new effort from the Marketplace portfolio to cover personal finance across all the platforms. He will also help lead initiatives, such as the successful collaborations with The New York Times – "Money Through the Ages" and "Which Way Home?"

"At Marketplace we are constantly fine tuning our on-air and online content to respond to our audience's wants and needs when it comes to business news programming," said Hirsch. "I'm excited by the prospect of taking on such a pivotal role at American Public Media, and I'm looking forward to helping to consolidate Marketplace's position as the country's most reliable source of business, economic and personal finance news and information."

Hirsch joined Marketplace in 2007, just as the credit crunch that preceded the 2008 financial crisis began to take hold. He administered the New York bureau, the Entrepreneurship desk and the senior business correspondent during the crisis, and he spearheaded Marketplace's financial markets coverage both during the crisis and afterwards, as the economy slipped into recession. He was awarded a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 2010, and he returned to Marketplace in July of 2011. Hirsch is also the creator of the Marketplace Whiteboard, an online video series in which he uses simple sketches and colorful analogy to explain financial and economic terminology in plain and understandable terms.

To find where you can tune-in Marketplace in your area, visit Marketplace.org and click on “Local Air Times.”

About Marketplace

Marketplace reports on business, the economy and money as they affect people every day. The portfolio reaches 9.3 million listeners each week on more than 500 public radio stations through its award-winning news shows: Marketplace Morning Report; Marketplace; Marketplace Money; andMarketplace Tech Report. For more information on Marketplace, please visit marketplace.publicradio.org..

American Public Media™ is one of the largest producers of public radio programming in the world, with a portfolio reaching 16 million listeners via nearly 800 radio stations nationwide each week. Programs include A Prairie Home Companion®, Marketplace®, Performance Today®, The Splendid Table®, On Being™, American RadioWorks® and many others. American Public Media's 125,000 member-strong Public Insight Network promotes deep connections between journalists across the country and the communities they serve. American Public Media is the parent organization for Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio and Classical South Florida. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services can be found at www.americanpublicmedia.org.Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc. Arbitron data are estimates only. Fall 2010/Spring 2011 average.