Pacifica has placed John Hughes, g.m. of WPFW in Washington, D.C., on paid administrative leave and appointed an outside consultant as interim g.m., according to a member of the Local Station Board.

Public media is made up of hundreds of storefronts in communities large and small, each of which has a unique window into America, its people and their stories. These storefronts — local public TV and radio stations — have built public media’s greatest asset: our unique relationships with listeners and viewers, local businesses and governments, and anchor institutions in the arts, philanthropy, education and social welfare. Yet at Public Radio Capital we increasingly hear from public media executives facing competitive and financial challenges that threaten their stations’ economic foundations and thus their effectiveness. Let’s face it: The public media business model isn’t changing.

American Masters and Downton Abbey led the opening round of the annual Primetime Emmys Sept. 15 by claiming three Creative Arts Emmys for PBS. American Masters, a production of New York’s WNET, topped the category for outstanding documentary or nonfiction series. Credit for the Emmy went to Susan Lacy, executive producer; Julie Sacks, supervising producer; Prudence Glass, series producer; and Jessica Levin, producer. The Emmy for direction in nonfiction programming was awarded to Robert Trachtenberg for his direction of the American Masters biography “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise.” Downton Abbey, the hit British drama co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece, received the Emmy for music composition in a series.

With The Key, we’re able to better reflect the diversity of the Philadelphia music scene, give local bands a platform to showcase their music in multimedia formats and position XPN even more centrally in the market conversation around local music.

Science Friday, the weekly NPR series hosted by Ira Flatow, is pairing with Public Radio International in a new distribution deal to take effect in January 2014. The agreement calls for Science Friday, a signature element of NPR’s science coverage since its 1991 launch, to continue as a weekly radio broadcast under PRI distribution. In addition, Flatow and his producers will collaborate with PRI series The World, The Takeaway and Studio 360 to develop multi-platform content around science topics. “We’re excited to work with PRI to expand their science and technology coverage,” Flatow said in a PRI news release.

Alec Baldwin, the actor and diehard public radio fan, will be ending his own popular podcast and pubradio program after two seasons due to a lack of funding, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Saul Landau, a filmmaker who made investigative documentaries for PBS, died Sept. 9 from cancer. He was 77. Landau’s death was announced by the Institute for Policy Studies, where he was a fellow for four decades. He made more than 40 films over his lifetime. Landau specialized in reporting on Cuba and made numerous documentaries about the country and leader Fidel Castro for public TV. Castro himself invited Landau to make the 1969 film Fidel, which later aired on PBS. In 1979 he co-directed and co-produced PBS’s Emmy- and Polk Award-winning Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang with Jack Willis.

Jason Seiken, PBS’s outgoing head of digital media, soon will oversee all editorial operations across Britain’s Telegraph Media Group, with editors of both the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph reporting directly to him, according to MediaWeek. The newspapers recently restructured their editorial staff of 550, laying off 80 print-based journalists and recruiting 50 digitally focused positions, MediaWeek reported. Seiken, who starts next month, will work to transform the Telegraph into a “fully integrated, entrepreneurial multimedia news organization.” “This appointment is vital to the future of our business and in achieving our ambition to become the foremost English-language multimedia news and content provider,” said Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of Telegraph Media Group.

NPR ended the practice Aug. 30 of crediting the off-mike staff behind the scenes of its newsmagazines, citing evidence that the lists of names cue listeners to tune away. The network had been considering the change for some time, said Margaret Low Smith, senior v.p. of news. In addition, credits could not accommodate all staffers, so those named “ended up being a select slice of people,” Smith said. And stations aren’t always consistent in crediting their own staffs during the newsmagazines. “It was evolutionary, and it was clear,” she said of the decision. Morning Edition made a nod to the change that day by ending the show with credits in which editors and producers said their own names, á la Public Radio International’s Studio 360.

Marc Biggs, a former U.S. Virgin Islands official convicted of accepting bribes in exchange for government contracts, went to work this week as facilities coordinator for WTJX, the PBS member station in St. Croix, reports the Virgin Islands Daily News. Biggs was property and procurement commissioner for the island territory when he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in 2008. He is currently on home confinement as his sentence comes to an end. “I know his hiring might be a little controversial,” said Osbert Potter, station c.e.o., “but we’re an equal employment opportunity entity. We certainly feel that his extensive experience in property and procurement matters will serve us well here at the system.”

Dolores Sukhdeo is the new president and chief executive officer of WPBT-TV in Miami, the station’s board announced Tuesday. She replaces Rick Schneider, who takes over this month as executive vice president and chief operating officer of WETA in Arlington, Va. Sukhdeo joined the station in 1998 as v.p. for facilities services and was promoted to c.o.o. in 2003. She began her television career in 1990 in the international newsgathering division of Disney/ABC News. She also serves as president-elect of the board of the International Women’s Forum of South Florida and is chair of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Board’s Nonprofit Business Committee.