APM Reports’ In the Dark Podcast Wins a Peabody Award

The Podcast is the “best of the best” in the Radio/Podcast Category

(Saint Paul, Minn.) --- April 25, 2017--- In the Dark, an investigative podcast by APM Reports, has received a George Foster Peabody Award for its groundbreaking reporting on the 27-year investigation of the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping.  The award is the highest honor in broadcast media, and is the second Peabody Award for host Madeleine Baran (Betrayed by Silence, 2014) and senior producer Samara Freemark (Radio Diaries, 2012).In the Dark took listeners inside one of the most notorious child abductions in the United States – the kidnapping of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling in Minnesota in 1989. Over nine episodes, the podcast revealed the failures of the Wetterling investigation – and the consequences.“We are honored to receive a George Foster Peabody Award,” said host Madeleine Baran. “This was an important story for us to tell. We’re grateful to the Peabody jurors for recognizing the importance of this story and the larger questions it raises about crime and law enforcement accountability.”With more than 7 million downloads, the first season of In the Dark topped the iTunes charts in the fall of 2016. Additionally, a five-episode series of adapted In the Dark episodes are running on approximately 200 public radio stations across the country – including stations in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Dallas, San Diego, Charlotte, N.C., and Cleveland. The combined full-week audience for these stations is more than 5 million.In the Dark has been widely praised. The Columbia Journalism Review called it “a feat of investigative storytelling” and named it one of the year’s best works of journalism. The New York Times included In the Dark in a list of top ten new podcasts of the year, writing: “A rash of long-form true-crime podcasts was introduced this year, inspired by the success of ‘Serial.’ ‘In the Dark’ is the rare offering that improves on the original ... Ms. Baran’s jumps off from the story of one crime to tell a much bigger tale — one implicating an entire sheriff’s office in decades of failed policing.”"The power of this reporting is the result of American Public Media believing in the importance of investigative journalism. We're at a time when all levels of government require scrutiny and news organizations need to be in service to America,” says APM Reports’ editor in chief Chris Worthington.The In the Dark team includes lead reporter and host Madeleine Baran, senior producer Samara Freemark, associate producer Natalie Jablonski, editor Catherine Winter, and editor in chief Chris Worthington.The team will attend the 76^th annual Peabody Award Ceremony on Saturday, May 20, in New York. It is the seventh Peabody Award for American Public Media | Minnesota Public Radio (APM | MPR).About APM ReportsAPM Reports, formed in November 2015, is a team of investigative journalists and documentary producers, editors, researchers and digital producers dedicated to high-quality reporting on issues that are often hidden from public view.About the Peabody Awards:The Peabody Awards honor the most powerful, enlightening and invigorating stories in television, radio and digital media. Each year, Peabody Awards are bestowed upon a curated collection of 30 stories that capture society's most important issues-known as the Peabody 30. Honorees must be unanimously chosen by the Peabody Board of Jurors, a diverse assembly of industry professionals, media scholars, critics, and journalists who each bring a unique perspective of what constitutes a story that matters. From major Hollywood productions to local journalism, the network of Peabody Awards winners is a definitive collection of society's most important stories and storytellers, including winners that have ranged from Edward R. Murrow, Carol Burnett, and David Letterman to "The Sopranos," "Sesame Street," "Breaking Bad," and "Serial." The Peabody Awards were founded in 1940 at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia and are still based in Athens today. For more information, visit peabodyawards.com or follow @PeabodyAwards on Twitter.About American Public Media Group:American Public Media Group is the largest station-based public radio organization in the U.S., combining multi-regional station operations, national programming creation and distribution and innovative digital, social and mobile services in one organization. Supported financially by contributions from individual donors, sponsors, philanthropic foundations as well as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, APMG’s operations include Minnesota Public Radio®, a 45-station network serving nearly all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states, and Southern California Public Radio, a four-station network serving Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County and the Inland Empire. Programs produced by MPR’s national programming division, American Public Media®, reach more than 20 million listeners via 1,000 radio stations nationwide each week. APM is one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world, with a portfolio that includes A Prairie Home Companion®, BBC World Service, Marketplace®, and the leading classical music programming in the nation. APM also offers a diverse array of podcasts featuring the best in food, culture, entertainment, business and investigative journalism. YourClassical, APM’s lifestyle classical music stream, packages classical music in an unconventional and innovative way with streams suited for life’s biggest moments and everyday situations. For more information on American Public Media Group, visit americanpublicmediagroup.org. Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio. Data are estimates only.

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