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Marketplace's Jocelyn Ford Wins
Overseas Press Club Award

Los Angeles, April 28, 2000 — Marketplace Productions proudly announces that Jocelyn Ford, Tokyo-based bureau chief for the business news show Marketplace, has been named recipient of the Overseas Press Club's award for Best Business Reporting from Abroad in the Broadcast Media. The prestigious award recognizes Ms. Ford for Reports from a Tokyo Bar Stool, an eight-part series that personalized Japan's long recession for Marketplace listeners. Award ceremonies were held last night at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

"This series started with a principle," says Marketplace Executive Producer JJ Yore, "one that we apply to much of what we produce on Marketplace. That principle is that we can better inform our listeners about major economic and cultural issues by creating intimate human portraits than we ever could from statistics, press conferences, and official 'experts.' Jocelyn's series about a club-owner in Tokyo's Ginza district is a great example of that principle come to life on the radio."

"Reports from a Tokyo Bar Stool" humanized Japan's recession by following the fortunes of Sakura Maeda, owner of a members-only club in Ginza, the Tokyo shopping and nightclub district frequented by Japan's business elite. The series profiled Sakura and her clients to highlight changes in Japan's traditional way of doing business, examining, among other topics, the move away from lifetime employment, the growing trend to promote executives based on merit (rather than seniority), and the emerging Japanese entrepreneur. Sakura briefly assumed this latter role, although she finally closed the club and is now pursuing Buddhist studies to become a nun.

Ms. Ford has been the Tokyo-based bureau chief for Marketplace since June of 1994. She has 18 years' experience as a reporter in Asia and has traveled to 16 countries in the region, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Myanmar. She has studied at the Japanese Language Institute, Tokyo, and the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, Taiwan. Ford is a founding member and currently vice-president of the Tokyo-based International Women in Communications.

Funding for Marketplace is provided by GE and Fannie Mae. Coverage from Japan is made possible in part by the United States-Japan Foundation, The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, the Freeman Foundation, and the Keizai Koho Center.

Marketplace Productions is produced in Los Angeles by Minnesota Public Radio in association with the University of Southern California. It produces the daily public radio business program Marketplace, as well as Marketplace Morning Reports and the public radio travel show, The Savvy Traveler®. The programs are distributed by Public Radio International.

CONTACT: Mary Pattock, (651) 290-1581, mpattock@mpr.org