APR was formed by four stations—the Minnesota Public Radio network, WGBH in Boston, WNYC in New York, and KUSC in Los Angeles—to distribute A Prairie Home Companion.

[6] In 2019, APM Reports journalists Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark received a Polk Award for season 2 of In the Dark, their investigation into the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for a quadruple murder in Winona, Mississippi in 1996.

[10] In 2023, the APM Reports educational team, with journalist Emily Hanford, won a Edward R. Murrow Award (Radio Television Digital News Association) for Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.

[11] The Lab was established in 2017 under the leadership of American Public Media Group's CEO Jon McTaggart and EVP Dave Kansas with the hiring of its inaugural Managing Partner, Craig Helmstetter.

[18][19][20][21][22] Until July 2015, APM operated Classical South Florida (WMLV-FM 89.7), which was sold to Educational Media Foundation, a California-based religious broadcasting company that airs contemporary Christian music; it now brands itself as a K-Love station.