Foundation support for media-related activities increased 21 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a study that examined how private philanthropies responded to the increased fragmentation of the media landscape. Grants for traditional public media organizations grew at a slightly slower rate than other categories of media grantmaking, from $100 million in 2009 to $118 million in 2011, an increase of 18 percent. Yet major stations such as New York’s WNET and Minnesota Public Radio are among the top recipients of philanthropic aid. “Growth in Foundation Support for Media in the United States,” released Nov. 12 by the Foundation Center, is a comprehensive look at the scope and size of foundations’ investments in media.

Pop Up Archive, an online sound library backed by a 2012 Knight News Challenge funding, launches this week. Co-founders Anne Wootton and Bailey Smith write in a Knight blog post that their original goal “seemed simple: to help audio producers organize their archives and create searchable sound. As we launch Pop Up Archive publicly, our goal has grown much bigger. We want to make it easy for all storytellers to find and reuse recorded sound.” Partnering with Public Radio Exchange, they’ve made thousands of hours of sound searchable through auto-transcription, auto-tagging and sound management tools. Content comes from “collections big and small,” such as Pacifica Radio Archives, Illinois Public Media and writer Studs Terkel.

Five pubcasting stations are receiving a total of $1 million in grants from CPB to expand emergency alert and communications services. CPB announced the grants today to WSKG in Binghamton, N.Y.; Maine Public Broadcasting Network; Vegas PBS in Nevada; WGBH in Boston; and Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn. Each will work with community partners and other pubmedia entities to acquire or develop digital wireless technology to assist first responders, emergency-management agencies and the public during disasters. Using pubmedia digital broadcasting technology, officials can send emergency information through text, audio and video. CPB is requiring participating stations to share what they learn with the entire pubcasting system to increase the initiative’s impact.

Together, WGBH and the LOC will digitize and store more than 40,000 hours of content.

Boston’s WBUR announced today that Christopher Lydon will rejoin the station to host and produce a weekly hourlong show, Open Source with Christopher Lydon. Bostonians last heard Lydon on WBUR when he hosted The Connection, a nationally syndicated interview show, from 1994 to 2001. He and much of his staff left WBUR in a bitter public dispute over ownership of their show, and Dick Gordon replaced him in the host’s chair. Lydon returned to the airwaves in Boston earlier this year as a contributor on WGBH. The new WBUR program will launch in January, airing Thursdays at 9 p.m.

MetLife Foundation has pledged $20 million over the next five years to Sesame Workshop, the two announced today, to create financial educational content for low- and moderate-income families with young children around the world through digital media, broadcast, community outreach local events and seminars. World Bank research shows that more than 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day, most lacking access to basic financial services that could be the key to a more hopeful future. The two organizations will build a coalition of local partnerships worldwide to help deliver the content. The new initiative is planned to reach up to 10 countries and is expected to launch in 2014 in Brazil, China, India and Mexico, expanding later to Europe and the Middle East.

Apple has signed PBS to create an app for its Apple TV set-top box service, AllThingsD reported Nov. 19. The app will allow Apple TV users who sign in through Facebook, Google+ or PBS’s own registration system to access the pubTV network’s digital library of on-demand programs. Previous seasons of Downton Abbey will be largely unavailable due to Amazon’s acquiring of exclusive on-demand rights to the program in June. But Apple TV users will be able to watch recent episodes of the show within a short window of their airing on PBS, including station reairings of the second and third seasons between now and December, a PBS spokesperson told AllThingsD.

Tom Hudson, former co-anchor for Nightly Business Report, is stepping into a new position of vice president of news at WLRN as part of an executive reorganization at the Miami pubcaster, according to the Miami Herald, an editorial partner with the dual licensee. Hudson joined WLRN earlier this year as a special correspondent, creator and host of  The Sunshine Economy.  He also hosts The Florida Roundup, a weekly public-affairs program, and writes a weekly column in the Miami Herald’s Money section. Hudson lost his NBR job when the weeknightly newsmag was acquired by CNBC in February.

A bipartisan bill to fight so-called “patent trolls” was introduced on Capitol Hill Monday, reports Broadcasting & Cable. Patent trolling, as the practice is known in the software industry, occurs when individuals or shell companies file broad, vague requests for software patents or ideas through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent holders then devote most or all of their company resources to filing lawsuits against companies whose products fit the description of their patents — such as podcasting. Several pubmedia podcasters have been targeted, including Jesse Thorn and his Bullseye program. The Patent Transparency and Improvement Act of 2013, backed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

Staffers at dual licensee KPBS in San Diego voted Monday to join SAG-AFTRA, the union said in a statement. The new bargaining unit will cover 55 employees who produce, report and present content for television, radio and the Web. KPBS is the second pubmedia station in Southern California this year to organize with SAG-AFTRA; employees of KPCC in Pasadena voted to join in January. WBEZ in Chicago is currently petitioning to join the union, which was formed by the 2012 merger of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. SAG-AFTRA also represents pubmedia professionals at NPR, KQED in San Francisco, WNYC in New York and other stations.

The Public Radio Regional Organizations presented the annual PRRO Award Nov. 13 to NPR Chief Administrative Officer Joyce Slocum, whose five years with the network  included serving as NPR’s interim c.e.o. for nine months in 2011. The PRRO award recognizes behind-the-scenes “heroes” who have helped advance the field of public media throughout their careers. Georgette Bronfmann of Eastern Region Public Media presented the award, lauding Slocum for steering NPR during challenging times  and describing the respect she earned among colleagues for her leadership. As chief administrative officer of NPR, Slocum serves as secretary to the NPR Board of Directors and is an adviser to the NPR Foundation Board of Trustees.