Slate media critic Jack Schafer lays out the case against proposals to save the Washington Post and the New York Times by converting them to nonprofit endowed journalism organizations, and NPR President Vivian Schiller joins the fray to point to NPR’s example. “We are the living, breathing prototype” of an endowed news organization that others are “imagining to be revolutionary,” she writes. “Shafer worries that an organization with an endowment and board means there’s no one to yell at. Fear not – we get yelled at just as much as every other news organization.”

PubTV stations are among the thousands of groups, businesses and industries using YouTube as a way to connect with the public. And it’s no wonder: YouTube just set a viewing record. In December alone, more than 4 billion video clips were viewed. Among the pubcasters with channels on YouTube are Iowa Public Television , WLIW in New York, APTI (Anchorage pubradio and TV stations) and WILL in Central Illinois.

Last week TV stations in Portland, Ore., including Oregon pubcasting stations, decided to transition to DTV on the original date of Feb. 17. Now they’ve decided to continue analog signals until June 12. “I kind of feel like Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football,” said Steve Bass, chief executive of Oregon Public Broadcasting. Broadcasting in both digital and analog is more expensive, Bass said, but OPB didn’t want to be the only metro-area station to make the conversion this month.

The Pennsylvania Public Television Authority would lose all state funding under a budget proposed by state Governor Ed Rendell, reports the Pittsburgh Business Times. PPTN provides support services to eight public TV stations in the state and channels about $1 million in state funds to each station. Rendell’s budget would also cut those funds. The agency had already reduced operating costs after a 20 percent cut in support (earlier article in Current). PPTN Chair Tony May says the proposal is “a serious problem for all stations.” George Miles, president of WQED in Pittsburgh, told the Business Times that he does not expect the final state budget to stop short of cutting all funding.

The White House is soliciting public comments before President Barack Obama signs into law the DTV transition delay. Comments must be in by Feb. 9, the same deadline day for stations to inform the FCC if they’re going to be discontinuing analog transmissions on Feb. 17, the original transition date.

During her first appearance at a regional pubradio conference, NPR President Vivian Schiller told station executives that NPR.org should not be perceived as competing with stations, according to PRPD President Arthur Cohen. Addressing station concerns about being “bypassed” by NPR’s digital distribution strategies, Schiller described her goal to build a “constellation” of station websites that combine local news with NPR’s international and national content. Cohen’s blog post from yesterday’s Public Radio in Mid America meeting summarizes Schiller’s observations after her first month in the job and describes “a refreshing enthusiasm and optimism in her tone.”

Stations that want to end analog service by Feb. 17, the original DTV transition date, now have a Feb. 9 deadline to inform the FCC. Stations must also air at least 120 PSA’s between now and Feb. 17 telling viewers of the transition. These rules are contingent on the president’s signature on the date-delay bill, which is expected soon.

Public broadcasting revenue could decline some $418 million in FY09 alone, according to a CPB preliminary report presented at its January meeting in San Francisco (PPT). It estimates a potential drop of $292 million for pubTV (16 percent of revenues) and $126 million for pubradio (13 percent). Some 21 percent of stations with operating budgets under $10 million are considered financially “fragile” in the report; of those, 70 percent are community licensees. CPB’s next board meeting is March 17-18 in Washington; more comprehensive details are expected then.

Worldfocus, the new international news program from WNET/WLIW is “being blamed for deep layoffs at the stations,” reports the New York Times. “Some employees, none of whom would speak publicly for fear of angering management,” blame parent company WNET.org’s spending on the new venture–$8 million, which came from company’s operating budget–for the loss of about 80 jobs two weeks ago. Many of the layoffs were in the local programming department. Neal Shapiro, president of WNET.org, told the Times the layoffs were unrelated to Worldfocus. Instead, he cited declining underwriting and foundation funding as well as a decrease in endowment earnings and member support.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is asking TV stations to “put consumers first” when considering switching from analog to digital before the new deadline of June 12. The senator, who heads up the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said in a statement: “While broadcasters are still permitted to move forward on Feb. 17, and some will do so, I hope that many will think of the needs of their customers and carefully weigh their options. This bill gives them an opportunity to stay the course through to June 12 until more help can be put in place.”

After Congress approved the DTV delay bill, longtime pubcasting supporter Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) former chair of the Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee, told Broadcasting & Cable: “I applaud the passage of this necessary legislation. It is unfortunate that Congress had to take additional action on this issue, but the prospect of leaving millions of consumers in the dark was simply unacceptable. This was a foreseeable problem and should have been anticipated and acknowledged by the Bush administration long ago. However, the Bush administration simply left us with insufficient time to make the needed adjustments on a national basis without this short, one-time delay.

The House has voted to delay the digital TV transition until June 12, reports the Washington Post. President Obama has said he will sign the bill immediately.

Microsoft, Google and Dell are among tech firms collaborating to create a database of occupied channels in the TV white spaces spectrum. The White Spaces Database Group is helping the FCC identify current channels to avoid interference from wireless broadband devices new to the spectrum. Other members of the group: Comsearch, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola and NeuStar.

“Our goal right now is nothing less than to completely replace radio with this whole new thing called personalized radio,” said Tim Westergren, chief strategy officer for the online music service Pandora, during an appearance at the monthly Social Media breakfast in Cincinnati. Pandora launched in November 2005 and has yet to earn a profit, Westergren said, but it “now has more listeners in major markets than many large radio stations, according to industry measurements; and the numbers are continuing to skyrocket,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

An investigation continues into the murder of a former public broadcaster, Sheila A. Kline, in Carlisle, Pa. Kline, 45, had worked at WGBH in 1991 and ’92, according to a station spokeswoman. Police say Kline’s body was found by a trash hauler about 6 a.m. Jan. 23 in a downtown alley near a parking garage. An autopsy determined that she had been strangled. Her obituary says was a writer and had worked in production for the Boston station.