Vermont Public Television and its president, John King, “parted ways” Wednesday, according to a statement from the VPT Board. King’s departure follows months of tumult at the Colchester-based community licensee over his relationship with the board. “VPT is very grateful for John King’s many years of service to VPT and the public television industry,” said Pam Mackenzie, VPT board chair, in the statement.  “We wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.” King declined comment to Current. He joined VPT in 1987 as chief financial officer and rose to president in 1998. Charlie Smith, a Vermont business consultant and former state executive, took over Wednesday as interim president and c.e.o.

• The Pacifica Foundation announced the appointment of a new interim executive director, even as the one the foundation attempted to fire, Summer Reese, reportedly continues to camp out at the foundation’s headquarters. Bernard Duncan, previously station manager at Pacifica’s Los Angeles outlet KPFK, is the new interim head of the network, according to a statement on Pacifica’s website. “What Pacifica needs right now is a skilled manager who can hit the ground running, and I’m very pleased Bernard’s taken us on,” board chair Margy Wilkinson said in the release. Duncan resigned from KPFK in January. • PBS’s POV will host a Twitter chat with veteran documentary filmmakers April 8 from 1-2 p.m.

• NPR introduced voice recognition–enabled ads this week on its smartphone app in an attempt to connect its nearly one million mobile listeners with sponsors, Adweek reports. The 15-second audio spots ask listeners to say “Download now” or “Hear more” after hearing an ad that sparks their interest. • The Knight Foundation has awarded a joint grant to the nonprofit newsrooms Voice of San Diego and MinnPost to help them develop plans to grow membership. The two-year, $1.2 million grant will be divided evenly between the news operations, who will collaborate on using membership data more effectively. Nieman runs down how the sites will use the grant.

Starting Tuesday, Detroit Public Television is outsourcing programming functions to the Tampa, Fla.–based Public Television Programming Service as part of a corporate restructuring announced last week. Detroit Public Television CEO Rich Homberg announced the changes in a memo to employees March 28. The decision to outsource programming brought with it elimination of the positions of Dan Gaitens, longtime director of programming, and Joann Havel, assistant director of programming, effective Friday. In addition to the programming change, Homberg announced the creation of a new communications department. The department will be headed by a newly hired manager scheduled to start April 21. The station also hired digital, print and broadcast specialists for the department.

Chicago Public Media announced Tuesday that Goli Sheikholeslami will become the organization’s CEO May 5, ending an eight-month national search to replace Torey Malatia. Sheikholeslami is the former vice president and g.m. of the Washington Post, where she worked from 2002 to 2010, overseeing the paper’s digital strategy. She has also worked at Condé Nast and Time Warner and most recently was chief product officer at online health-resource network Everyday Health Inc. She is new to public media. “Goli brings the perfect blend of experience to this role,” said Steve Baird, CPM board chair, in a release announcing her hiring.

• CPB CEO Pat Harrison sat down with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Monday for an interview about her background in advance of a visit to WQED for the station’s 60th anniversary. Harrison chatted about her beginnings as a freelance writer and as the founder of the National Women’s Economic Alliance and about how her Brooklyn upbringing influenced her leadership abilities. “You would go from one block to the other at that time, and you were in a different country,” she said. “You didn’t want to be fighting on the playground all the time, so you had to find a way to connect with some sort of common denominator, or you wouldn’t survive third grade.”

• A lengthy Columbia Journalism Review feature focuses on a conflict over journalistic ethics at Anchorage-based Alaska Public Media. CFO Bernie Washington has been nominated to serve on the State Assessment Review Board, which helps to determine revenues from oil taxes in the state. APM journalists are concerned about Washington’s appointment compromising the network’s coverage of the review board. “We are aghast, quite frankly, aghast that our management doesn’t understand that this is a solid, more than apparent conflict of interest,” Steve Heimel, host of Talk of Alaska, told CJR. • President Obama will nominate Elizabeth Sembler for a second term on the CPB board, the White House announced Thursday.

PBS’s fiscal 2015 draft budget contains a recommendation for a 2.5 percent increase in dues paid by member stations. The PBS Board, meeting Friday morning at headquarters in Arlington, Va., voted to send the proposed budget to member stations for comment. Stations did not see an increase in membership assessments this year due to an anticipated FY13 windfall of $22 million generated in part by higher income from PBS Distribution deals for Masterpiece megahit Downton Abbey. By the end of FY13, PBS officially closed its books with an extra $24.5 million. PBS management is proposing the 2.5 percent dues increase for FY15, which would generate about $4.6 million.

• WUGA-TV in Athens, Ga., is cutting all local programming from its schedule and eliminating six staff members as of June 30, the University of Georgia announced Thursday. The changes come as a result of a study requested by Jere Morehead, president of UGA, the station’s licensee. The study determined that the cost of ramping up local programming and student involvement for the station “was just too great relative to the cost of the operation,” according to the release. WUGA will switch to carrying the PBS World Channel full-time beginning July 1. The move will save the university about $565,000 annually, the release said.