The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop is co-sponsoring a research study on children and Internet keyword searching, reports the New York Times. Eighty-nine children ages 7, 9 and 11 participated. The newspaper says that because more children are using search as a tool for homework or entertainment, search-engine developers are studying youngsters for guidance on how to improve features — which leads to improvements for all users.

Rich Samuels, longtime reporter on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, did not have his contract renewed due to a “seven-figure shortfall” in the station’s budget, according to blogger Robert Feder on Vocalo. The 68-year-old Samuels spent a total of 35 years in Chicago broadcast media, the last 18 at Channel 11. It’s the latest blow for the pubaffairs show; host John Callaway died last June. A station spokeswoman declined to detail any financial troubles at the station in the Chicago Sun-Times. She did confirm that Samuels would not be replaced.

Influential pubcaster David Fanning, Frontline e.p., had harsh words on what he sees as the growing commercialism in pubcasting during his James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting at the Annenberg School for Communication. One evening after he’d spoken at a station fundraiser, he recalled, “I was scrolling through the channels when I came across a shopping channel with a dubious doctor selling nutritional supplements. I was interested in a perversely fascinated way as he promised all sorts of remedies, including — and I’m not exaggerating here — results for cancer sufferers. And then the shot changed to a woman with him who said that if you bought these supplements you’d be making a donation to .

WQED in Pittsburgh, one of 22 pubcasting stations participating in phase two of CPB’s American Archive Pilot Program, is uncovering a treasure trove of old programming, reports the Post-Gazette. There are interviews with baseball exec Branch Rickey, who integrated the game; Eleanor Roosevelt; and jazz legend Louis Armstrong. The station received $100,000 to digitize and preserve valuable footage.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, pubcasters all! Here’s a feel-good story of seasonal generosity, courtesy of Hawaii PBS.

“Snarky” blog postings by Paul Burka, senior executive editor of the Texas Monthly, disqualify him as a panelist for next month’s televised debate between Republican gubernatorial candidates Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Gov. Rick Perry, a spokeswoman for Dallas’s KERA-TV tells the Texas Tribune. KERA, chief sponsor of the debate among several media outlets, invited the magazine to appoint a panelist, just not Burka; the magazine declined to send anyone and dropped out as a sponsor. The Tribune suggests that Hutchinson’s campaign leaned on KERA to ban Burka, who has been “a fixture” in the state’s political debates since the late 1980s.

The NPR News app for Google’s Android mobile platform, announced earlier this month, has gone live. Mashable has already taken it for a test-run: “[T]he Android version of NPR News is very similar to its iPhone counterpart. Most of the menu designations are the same and most of the layout options are similar.” The biggest missing feature is the live streaming function: “You can listen to archived programs, but live-streaming and tuning in to live stations won’t be available until spring 2010.”

Former NPR digital media chief Maria Thomas is leaving Etsy, the online marketplace for hand-crafted goods that she has run as chief executive since 2008. Founder Rob Kalin will takeover as c.e.o. in January. It’s not clear why Thomas is leaving. In a blog post announcing the change, Kalin wrote that the company has become profitable under her leadership. “Maria helped us reach this major milestone….Her long experience and business skills were hugely helpful.” Traffic to the site has doubled in the past year, according to TechCrunch, which offers this speculation about the role that NPR’s former veep played at Etsy: “Perhaps Thomas was brought in for adult supervision while Kalin, who is young, was learning the ropes.”

What else would Marvel Comics stars Wolverine, a Canadian mutant who has sideburns and retractable claws, and Nightcrawler, a German Catholic mutant who has a tail, listen to during a road trip? In the comic “Nation X #1,” the X-Men’s ears are glued to WBEZ-produced This American Life, as revealed by news producer Hunter Clauss in a blog for WBEZ’s sister station, Vocalo. Current has determined that they are listening to a towering achievement of self-deprecatory humor in which TAL‘s staff takes blood tests and finds that even some of the women have more testosterone than Ira Glass. (The stuff is poison, anyway!)

PBS announced today that for the first time, it has subscribed to full-time Nielsen ratings, reports the New York Times. The ratings will provide weekly numbers only. Andrew Russell, a senior v.p. for PBS Ventures, told the paper that monthly ratings were no longer satisfying marketers, who want shorter time frames for sponsorships and more information on viewership. The subscription started tracking numbers with National Parks: America’s Best Idea in September. That reached an average of 5.5 million viewers over its six-night run.

Want to talk public media 140 characters at a time with like-minded thinkers? Use the Twitter #pubmedia hashtag to join in the discussion. Idea comes from Jessica Clark of the Center for Social Media at American University.

Comments are coming in to the PBS ombudsman regarding the transformation of PBS NewsHour into a more nimble and multiplatform program. Viewpoints range from appreciation of its “new briskness” to disappointment that “it comes across as a canned program.” Also, thoughts from viewers on specific NewsHour reports including climate change.

PBS programs have won 18 CINE Golden Eagle Awards, presented twice a year to recognize work of filmmakers, videographers, producers, directors and other craftspeople in the film, television, and new media industries. Among the winners are Sesame Street, American Masters, four for Nova (including “Ocean Animal Emergency,” above) and a MacNeil/Lehrer doc. WCTE-TV/Two Six Inc., serving the north-central area of Tennessee, also scored an Eagle for Tuba U: Basso Profundo. Full list of winners here.

How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin is bringing back some McCartney memories for KCET programming guru Bohdan Zachary. Turns out he actually chatted with Paul McCartney — yes, gabbed, in person, for several minutes, with THE Paul McCartney — backstage at a 1976 Wings Over the World Tour concert stop at Madison Square Garden. A buddy of his was a longtime friend of Paul’s wife Linda. As Linda and his friend caught up, Zachary and the former Beatle visited. “First, he complimented me on my ‘cool shoes’ (old sneakers I’d hand painted) and engaged me in conversation all about me,” Zachary recalls.