• Jovian, the lemur who starred in footage on public TV’s Zoboomafoo, has died at the age of 20, reports the Duke Chronicle. The Coquerel’s sifaka appeared along with a lemur puppet on the show, which aired from 1999-2001. “He was great, a really beautiful sifaka,” said Zoboofamoo co-host Martin Kratt. “He was really gentle and curious, the perfect lemur for the show.”
• “Mail . . . kimp?” Fans of the podcast Serial have heard that mispronunciation of the name of email newsletter company MailChimp in the show’s opening underwriting spot. Just in case anyone would ever try calling up “mailkimp.com,” the company has bought that domain, reports Fast Company. The article also digs into MailChimp’s interest in advertising on Serial: “For us, sponsoring a podcast isn’t about the product; it’s about brand awareness,” says MailChimp’s marketing director. “It’s important to us to see MailChimp as a supporter of creative things and creative people, and empowering those people to do the thing they do really well.”
• In his latest column, NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos reviews criticisms of a recent All Things Considered story about abortions in El Salvador. Analyzing the report by correspondent Jason Beaubien, Schumacher-Matos finds that a central anecdote in the story was a bad fit and left out some “messy contradictions.” The ombud also urged NPR to correct headlines on the story and an accompanying video.
• The nonprofit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism is considering whether it can continue to produce IowaWatch Connection, a show about Iowa issues that airs on radio stations across the state. Most of the stations are commercial. Funding from underwriting is low, and most radio stations can’t or won’t pay for the program, according to Journo.biz. “IowaWatch is in a critical phase of trying to keep its IowaWatch Connection program going in January,” said Lyle Muller, executive director of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism. “A decision on whether or not we do that will be made later this month.”