The Iowa Public Television Board on March 8 selected Molly Phillips, the station communications director, to become its new general manager, reports the Indianapolis Star. She takes over from Dan Miller, who retired last year after 37 years at IPTV following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The other finalist, Greg Schnirring, CPB’s vice president for radio, withdrew from consideration last week, the newspaper reported. “His statement to our board president was that after doing a lot of thinking it just wasn’t a fit,” said Jennifer Konfrst, a spokeswoman for IPTV.

AUSTIN, Texas — Former All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris discussed details of her Race Card Project during a March 9 panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. The project, which began during a 2010 book tour promoting her memoir The Grace of Silence, is a conversational tool in which Norris facilitates an ongoing dialogue about race. She distributes physical “race cards” to participants, who are asked to write their thoughts on race in six words or fewer and mail the cards back to Norris (whose parents were both U.S. postal workers). Norris then compiles the responses onto a website.

This is CPB’s account of its history of annual appropriations since its founding in more than 40 years ago. Figures shown represent millions of dollars (for example, $5.0 = $5 million). More recent figures may be posted by CPB. Fiscal Year Admin. Request House Allocation Senate Allocation Appropriation 1969 $9.0 (b) $6.0 $5.0 1970 $15.0 (b) $15.0 $15.0 1971 $22.0 (b) $27.0 $23.0 1972 $35.0 $35.0 $35.0 $35.0 1973 $45.0 $45.0 $45.0 $35.0 1974 $45.0 (b) $55.0 $50.0 1975 $60.0 $60.0 $65.0 $62.0 1976 $70.0 $78.5 $78.5 $78.5 TQ (a) $17.0 $17.5 $17.5 $17.5 1977 $70.0 $96.7 $103.0 $103.0 1978 $80.0 $107.1 $121.1 $119.2 1979 $90.0 $120.2 $140.0 $120.2 1980 $120.0 $145.0 $172.0 $152.0 1981 $162.0 $162.0 $162.0 $162.0 1982 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 1983 $172.0 $172.0 $172.0 $137.0 1984 $110.0 $110.0 $130.0 $137.5 1985 $85.0 $130.0 $130.0 $150.5 1986 $75.0 $130.0 $130.0 $159.5 1987 $186.0 (b) $238.0 $200.0 1988 $214.0 (b) $214.0 $214.0 1989 $214.0 $214.0 $238.0 $228.0 1990 $214.0 $238.0 $248.0 $229.4 1991 $214.0 (b) $245.0 $245.0 1992 $242.1 $242.1 $260.0 $251.1 1993 $259.6 $259.6 $275.0 $259.6 1994 $260.0 $253.3 $284.0 $275.0 1995 $275.0 $271.6 $310.0 $285.6 1996 $292.6 $292.6 $320.0 $275.0 1997 $292.6 (b) $330.0 $260.0 1998 $296.4 $240.0 $260.0 $250.0 1999 $275.0 $250.0 $250.0 $250.0 2000 $325.0 $300.0 $300.0 $300.0 2001 $340.0 $340.0 $340.0 $340.0 2002 $350.0 $340.0 $350.0 $350.0 2003 $365.0 $365.0 $365.0 $362.8 2004 (c) $365.0 $395.0 $377.8 2005 (c) $380.0 $395.0 $386.8 2006 (c) (d) $335.0 $400.0 $396.0 2007 (c) (d) $400.0 $400.0 $400.0 2008 (c) (d) $400.0 $400.0 $393.0 2009 (c) (d) none $400.0 $400.0 2010 (c) (d) $420.0 $420.0 $420.0 2011 (c) $430.0 $430.0 $429.1 2012 $440.0 $440.0 $450.0 $444.1 2013 $460.0 $460.0 $460.0 $445.0 2014 $451.0 none $445.0 $445.0 Notes (a) Transition Quarter funding, during which federal budget year changed from July to September.

NPR Newscast Editor Brenda Michelle Box Johnson died Thursday following a four-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 58. A statement from NPR said that since her arrival in 2003, Box had “shaped the sound” of NPR newscasts. “Brenda had an exacting eye and a natural, comfortable way in her dealings with reporters and correspondents, distinguishing her as the type of consummate editor that most organizations can only dream of,” said Robert Garcia, NPR newscast executive producer. “Anyone who ever dealt with Brenda knows what a special and unique person she was; equal parts outspoken and hilarious, brilliant and fun and warm and self-deprecating.”

Salon.com is reporting what it calls “a case of apparent plagiarism” by former NPR Correspondent Juan Williams, now a Fox News political analyst. The site said that Williams lifted “sometimes word for word” from a Center for American Progress (CAP) report, without attribution, for a Hill newspaper column that carried his byline last month. Nearly two weeks after publication the column was revised online, Salon said, and citations to the report were added. A Hill editor’s note told readers of the revisions “to include previously-omitted attribution” to CAP. Williams told Salon that a researcher was to blame. “I was writing a column about the immigration debate and had my researcher look around to see what data existed to pump up this argument and he sent back what I thought were his words and summaries of the data,” Williams said.

Dick Stein, Midday Jazz host on KPLU-FM in Tacoma, Wash., experiences a conundrum every spring over cookies — Girl Scout Cookies, that is. “I always buy a carton the very first day I encounter the kids outside the supermarket,” Stein said in a press release. “Next trip, I might even buy another. But that’s it. I can only buy so many. Then because I am a complete softie, I feel terrible turning them down on subsequent market trips.” So last year Stein contacted Girl Scouts of Western Washington with an idea: How about an “I Bought Girl Scout Cookies” button? Local Girl Scouts spokesperson Stefanie Ellis said the organization loved the idea.

The FCC has approved the sale of a West Virginia college station to Pittsburgh Public Media, a jazz webcaster run by former employees of the city’s defunct WDUQ-FM. PPM will pay $135,000 for the 1,100-watt WVBC-FM, currently operated by Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va. It plans to switch the station at 88.1 MHz to a jazz format starting in April, says Chuck Leavens, PPM president. The station now airs music and college sports. PPM was established in 2010 in a bid to buy WDUQ, which broadcast both NPR News and jazz to southwestern Pennsylvania. But Duquesne University sold the license to Essential Public Media, a collaboration between the city’s Triple A station WYEP and a new subsidiary of Public Radio Capital.

Public media has no standardized impact measurement practices or frameworks, and having just one approach is not realistic for all outlets, according to a new report provided by the National Center for Media Engagement based on research by San Francisco-based LFA (Learning For Action) Group, which works to increase impact and sustainability in the nonprofit sector. “This report confirms much of the conventional wisdom about the lack of use, or convergence, around a single measurement framework – or for that matter agreement on what constitutes impact,” the report notes. It advises that public media must better define “impact,” face the tensions that exist over public media’s responsibilities, prioritize mission, and collaborate on resources to lower costs.

WGBH in Boston is partnering with Amazon Studios, the content production arm of mega-retailer Amazon.com, on a pilot for an original children’s math series, Sara Solves It, Amazon Studios announced today. Executive producers are Carol Greenwald of Curious George, Arthur and Martha Speaks, and Angela C. Santomero of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Super Why! and Blue’s Clues. The series is one of 12 pilots currently in production by Amazon Studios. Each will be posted on Prime Instant Video and Amazon Instant Video for free viewing. User feedback will help determine which series Amazon Studios produces.

Native tribes in New Mexico and Arizona are the first to benefit from the FCC’s Tribal Radio Priority, a provision created by the commission to help tribal entities start new radio stations. The FCC announced March 1 that it set aside FM allotments for Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M., and for the Hualapai Tribe in Peach Springs, Ariz. Allotments serve as placeholders for future FM stations; the tribes must now wait until the FCC opens a filing window and accepts their applications for construction permits. The commission created the Tribal Radio Priority provision in 2010, establishing standards by which Native tribes could be given priority in securing licenses for AM and FM stations.

Idaho’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee is recommending that Idaho Public Television receive a boost in state support over the governor’s recommendation, mainly for equipment replacement, according to the Spokesman-Review. Gov. Butch Otter had recommended a 2.6 percent hike in state funding in next year’s budget, to $1.6 million. IPTV’s request was for a 78.2 percent rise to $2.8 million. The legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved a 9.8 percent increase to $1.7 million. Included is funding to replace $34,000 worth of failed, 22-year-old equipment that has knocked out service to the communities of Challis, Salmon and Leadore, the newspaper noted.

When the board of Iowa Public Radio voted to remove Mary Grace Herrington as c.e.o. Feb. 25, the directors were responding to mounting evidence of declining staff morale at the state network. Dissension over Herrington’s leadership was sparked at least in part by her decision to fire a popular news director last year. The sole “no” in the IPR board’s 6-1 vote was cast by a newly appointed director who was attending his first meeting. Herrington had been chief executive since 2009, leading IPR through a signal expansion and format differentiation that created two distinct public radio channels for Iowans. She had previously served as assistant vice president for advancement operations at Creighton University.

This item has been updated and reposted. CPB on Monday sent a memo to public broadcasting stations detailing the 5 percent sequester of its $445 million 2013 appropriation. “Reflecting our continued concern about the potential for additional budget actions in FY 2013,” CPB President Pat Harrison told pubcasting executives, CPB will base this fiscal year’s second Community Service Grant payments on an appropriation level of $421.415 million, which will incorporate a recalculation of the first CSG payment at $421.415 million. CSGs should be ready by April 1, she added. By statute, Harrison said, the 5 percent cut will be allocated across all CPB functions (numbers  rounded): System support, a total $26.7 million appropriation, will receive a $1.33 million cut; administration, $22.3 million, drops $1.11 million; television station grants, $222.8 million, drops $11.1 million; television programming, $74.3 million, drops $3.7 million; radio station grants, $69.3 million, drops $3.5 million; radio programming acquisition grants, $22.8 million, drops $1.1 million; and radio programming, $6.9 million, drops $347,000.