The Miami Herald and WLRN-FM have joined American Public Media’s Public Insight Network, the citizen journalism system for tapping audience members as sources. The Herald, an editorial partner with WLRN’s newsroom since 2000, is the first major daily newspaper to join the web-powered sourcing system. The partners plan to tailor their network for Spanish-speaking audiences. “Our participation in the Public Insight Network will be personalized to the communities we serve, and will include a bilingual user interface to ensure we’re interacting with all of our readers and listeners,” says Rick Hirsch, senior editor of multimedia for the Herald.

Three new Sesame Workshop series will premiere at MIPCOM in Cannes, France, Oct. 4-8, the Workshop announced today (Aug. 2). In the first, a furry Muppet fave dons a red cape and silver helmet to transform into Super Grover 2.0, who “observes, questions, investigates and reports” to young viewers. That will also run as segments on the international Sesame Street in the U.S. Also in the lineup is Count TV, hosted by Count von Count and ending with an animated Bert and Ernie singing and tap dancing about the number of the day. Goodnight, Elmo takes kids through the bedtime routine as Elmo and his dad say goodnight, put on pajamas and read a story — and sometimes Elmo gets to make up his own tales.

PBS is offering two never-broadcast Ken Burns films for pledge about painter and spiritual teacher William Segal, the New York Times reports. The Segal films have only been seen in museums and a DVD, “Seeing, Searching, Being,” and have become “something of an underground commodity for devotees of Mr. Segal’s approach to self-realization,” the paper notes. The third film in the trilogy will be provided as a premium. The films are in a style much different from the PBS documentarian’s usual work. They do not use the “Ken Burns effect,” his trademark technique of using still shots of historical documents to tell a story.

NPR released a statement today (July 30) to Poynter Institute blogger Jim Romenesko, that it is “not involved in any way” with petitions circulating online that ask the White House Correspondents Association to give now-retired longtime reporter Helen Thomas’s front-row seat in the White House briefing room to the network. Petitions have been put forward by CREDO Action, a progressive advocacy site; it already has 254,218 signatures to give the chair to NPR rather than FOX News. Another progressive online group, MoveOn.org, is also getting involved. “NPR was not consulted about either petition and we learned about them via Facebook and e-mail.

After the Association of Public Television Stations spent several years trying to get the satellite provider Dish Network to sign a carriage deal for HD noncoms, Dish finally has done so. But not with APTS. Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that Dish has struck an independent HD carriage agreement with at least 30 “geographically diverse” pubcasting stations.

More than 400 items from the offices and studios of WNET/Thirteen in New York are being auctioned off Aug. 3. The station soon will move to new digs but doesn’t yet know where, according to Crain’s New York Business. It’s sub-leasing to Gay Men’s Health Crisis starting in October.

WVIA-FM 89.9 in Pittston, Pa., will return to the air Aug. 3 after a $2 million fire five months ago completely destroyed its transmission facilities, the station said in a statement today (July 29). The fire began while electricians who were working on the building on Penobscot Mountain accidentally set the ceiling ablaze. Many listeners have been affected, the statement says, “from difficulty with a signal that is spotty and barely satisfactory, to the complete absence of WVIA-FM in several areas that once received it.” The station has been operating out of a trailer next to the site.

For the first time, fans can watch individual episodes of Sesame Street‘s international productions via Amazon Video On Demand. Included are co-productions from Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kosovo, Palestine, Russia, South Africa, Northern Ireland, India and Egypt, the Sesame Workshop said in a statement July 29. (Image: Sesame Workshop)

Indie pubcasting network MHz is partnering with IDMAonline on a new website that offers a “social learning network specifically for the digital media industry,” the two announced in a statement Monday (July 26). Site members have access to the Commons, to meet with colleagues and ask and answer questions. What makes the site unique, the two said in the statement, is the “live online” professional training in the digital media arts: multimedia, filmmaking, animation and photography. There are full certificate programs and mentorship initiatives where students can focus on a specific topic. MHz Worldview, MHz Networks’ flagship channel, brings international programs to audiences though cable, satellite and online affiliates.

CPB Ombudsman Ken Bode faults PBS NewsHour‘s Jim Lehrer for “an opportunity lost and a lesson in what can happen when an interview is constructed on the basis of pre-conceived notions.” In Bode’s latest report, he’s reacting to a viewer’s complaints that Lehrer “has increasingly lost his impartiality,” particularly in an interview with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “It seemed designed to build a narrative that President Obama has slow political reflexes and is disengaged from key decisions of his administration,” Bode said of the July 7 interview. “Mr. Emanuel convinced this viewer otherwise.”

At an all-station meeting in Los Angeles Tuesday (July 27), KCET staffers were told that 13 employees are being laid off. Cuts come from across several departments, and at least one vice president is affected. In June 2009, KCET cut 12 full-time and part-time staffers and announced furloughs and pay cuts. The station also dropped its 45-year-old program guide that month, citing financial reasons.

Two of the local journalism centers backed by CPB in April are up and running. “Changing Gears,” helmed by New York Times veteran Micheline “Micki” Maynard, has launched its website and a blog pointing readers to coverage from the three partner stations, Chicago’s WBEZ, Michigan Radio, and Cleveland’s ideastream. HealthyState.org, a collaboration of five public stations in central Florida, has hired Jennifer Molina to lead its editorial team. Launch plans for additional LJCs are still pending; Fronteras, the largest collaboration to be announced so far, is recruiting a social media editor for its project covering immigration and border issues in the Southwest.

PBS is moving ahead with its national online giving campaign, a topic of much conversation within the system (Current, June 7, 2010). The working group recently met for preliminary talks. Station reps include Tim Olson, veep of digital media and education at KQED; Kelly McCullough, g.m. at Eight/Arizona PBS; Joe Krushinsky, veep of institutional advancement at MPT; Ken Yanhs, director of WGBH Online; Michal Heiplik, director of membership at Houston PBS; Shane Guiter, KLRU’s director of development in Austin, Texas; Robert Altman, president of WMHT in Troy, N.Y., with David Preston, Twin Cities Public TV membership manager, speaking for the Development Advisory Council.

Take a look at Democracy Now’s new studio/offices in lower Manhattan, the first broadcast facility to receive LEED Platinum rating for low adverse environmental impact ­– low energy and water usage, high levels of recycled materials, and the rest, says a report in the July/August architecture mag Metropolis. Extra care in design and construction, such as using sheetrock that’s not only recycled but locally made, helped the handsome, not-too-lush renovation of a former printing plant win the top rating from the U.S. Green Building Council (study up). Co-hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez guest-star in the slideshow.

An accountability journalism project announced last week by J-Lab will back in-depth reporting and collaborations among news organizations in the Philadelphia region. The Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund is seeking proposals for enterprise, investigative, explanatory or computer-assisted reporting projects that enhance public understanding of important city or regional issues, engage in developing solutions or reveal new information. Collaboration–among news creators or between journalists and programmers, for example–is a key focus of the project. “This experimental pilot is intended to demonstrate the power and potential for increased civic accountability when strong, professional public affairs news operations are given incentives and resources to work together in the public interest,” said Shawn McCaney, program officer with the William Penn Foundation, which created the Fund.