Mexico is planning a $45.5 million boost to public broadcasting, to rough triple national coverage from 2010 to 2012, Variety reports. That initial investment for 2011-2012 will mainly fund 19 new repeater substations to help boost signals across the nation. An additional $3 million yearly will go to operations through 2020. The government hopes to improve the coverage of Once (Spanish for 11) TV, the largest educational broadcast network (owned by Instituto Politecnico Nacional, or the National Polytechnic Institute), from 50.7 percent to 76.8 percent of the country, an additional 26.9 million viewers. Its goal is to reach more than 91 million viewers by 2020.

DEI honored veteran fundraiser Jim Lewis with its President’s Award, presented at the discretion of DEI chief Doug Eichten for outstanding contributions to public radio development. Lewis, who recently retired as a fundraising consultant with Lewis Kennedy Associates, has “dedicated his life and long career in public broadcasting–not only to serving the American public as a reporter, station manager and fundraising executive for public stations–but he also worked to help all of us,” Eichten said during a July 15 session at DEI’s Public Media Development and Marketing conference in Pittsburgh. “He has played a major role in the professionalization of development of public broadcasting.”

Spanish-language pubTV multicaster V-me premieres an interactive weekly show for gamers, GAME40, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern July 22. V-me said in a July 14 statement that Hispanics, especially bilingual young Hispanic males, over-index in the use of video games of all kinds. GAME40 is “not just a television series,” V-me said, but “spans multiple platforms to engage gamers from the novice to the junkie,” providing updates on new and upcoming titles, the latest innovations and the week’s best releases. The show is already “a smashing success in Spain,” V-me notes.

CPB is backing development of Essential Public Media, the nonprofit whose purchase of Pittsburgh’s WDUQ is pending before the FCC. CPB President Patricia Harrison announced a $250,000 grant supporting start-up of EPM’s digital journalism newsroom during a July 14 luncheon at the Public Media Marketing and Development conference in Pittsburgh. “We are confident this will be a model for public media news operations across the country,” she said. EPM began managing day-to-day operations of WDUQ on July 1, adopting an all-news format and scaling jazz music programming back to a six-hour weekend slot on 90.5 FM, its flagship channel. It’s begun exploring collaborative editorial partnerships with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PublicSource, an investigative news start-up that launched with foundation backing this spring, according to Lee Ferraro, manager of Pittsburgh’s WYEP, one of the public media nonprofits that’s a partner in EPM.

PBS is eliminating 13 current staff positions and eight vacancies, PBS President Paula Kerger said in a letter to the system today (July 13).”This was not an easy decision to make, and we wish our departing staff the best as they pursue other opportunities,” Kerger said. Six “new or restructured” positions also will be added, including two new vice presidents of general audience programming to support the ongoing revamp of PBS’s primetime lineup. “Change can be difficult, but I remain convinced that by focusing on our larger goals, we will come out on the other end as a stronger organization prepared to support our mission and stations,” Kerger said.

The Federal Communications Commission is getting closer to creating new low-power FM stations and approving rebroadcasting programming from other stations, according to the Blog of the Legal Times. With a 4-0 vote Tuesday (July 12), the FCC “breaks a longstanding logjam on spectrum,” said chairman Julius Genachowski. The problems have been ongoing since 2000, when Congress put low-power radio in urban areas on hold after commercial broadcasters complained about interference. In Tuesday’s Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (PDF), the FCC approved lifting a freeze on processing translator applications and resuming licensing of translator stations in most smaller and rural markets.

KOTO, broadcasting to Telluride, Colo., and surrounding environs from its purple house on Pine Street, is really feeling a financial pinch — particularly because it’s one of only six pubradio stations in the country that does not accept underwriting. Its news staff was recently pared to just one reporter, and its executive director got a salary cut; other pay and benefit reductions could follow. So the station soon will survey its members to ask if online or on-air underwriting would be acceptable, reports the Telluride Daily Planet. KOTO’s support from CPB has dwindled from $170,000 three years ago to less than $92,000 this year.

Bruce Ramer, board chairman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has been selected by the Hollywood Reporter as one of its Power Lawyers for 2011. Gang Tyre Ramer & Brown “is one of Hollywood’s top talent boutiques,” the paper says, and Ramer’s longtime clients include Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood.

Ronnie Agnew, executive editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., for nearly a decade, is the new head of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the newspaper reports. MPB’s former executive director, Judith Lewis, resigned last September after her controversial decision to discontinue Fresh Air (Current, July 26, 2010). Agnew was selected as the 50th recipient of the Samuel Talbert Silver Em Award, the University of Mississippi’s highest journalism honor. He serves as a member of the American Society of News Editors’ board of directors and chairs its diversity committee. Agnew has worked at Gannett newspapers in Hattiesburg and Cincinnati as well as Jackson for most of the past 20 years.

Puerto Rico’s government-controlled WIPR dropped its PBS membership on July 1 — the fourth member station to quit this year. Puerto Rico TV, which produces and broadcasts mostly in Spanish, carried only the English versions of PBS Kids programs. A separate station — Sistema TV (WMTJ), licensed to the private Ana G. Méndez University System — carries a selection of general audience PBS programs. PBS lost WIPR fees amounting to $713,000 a year. The network earlier lost KCET in Los Angeles on Jan. 1 and two Florida stations as of July 1:  Orlando’s WMFE-TV, and Daytona’s WDSC-TV, which shared their service area with a third station, which continues as a PBS outlet.

Former NPR news analyst Juan Williams’ book hits stores next week. Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate chronicles the months after he said on Fox News that he felt uneasy with airline passengers wearing traditional Muslim garb. NPR fired him, which riled conservatives and triggered a firestorm on Cap Hill during important pubcasting funding hearings. The Atlantic notes that David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, is quoted in a blurb on the book’s cover: “For any American who fears the coarsening of our political debate has become an impediment to our progress as a people — and, more importantly, is wondering how to fix it — Juan Williams has written a book well worth reading.”

PBS SoCal, the primary network affiliate in Los Angeles since the departure of KCET in January, broke ground July 7 on a digital media production studio headquarters in Costa Mesa, Calif. Station President Mel Rogers did the ceremonial honors, with the help of city officials, board representatives, major donors and PBS star Clifford the Big Red Dog. Rogers also unveiled a $14 million Education and Community through Media initiative that he said will “build a solid platform for PBS SoCal’s future.” The initiative calls on the private sector to help the station establish education, production, communications and sponsorship sales branch offices in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs; create a PBS SoCal “One Community” mobile studio and classroom; form a national digital content creation division to produce programming for local and national audiences; expand PBS SoCal Education’s Ready to Learn and K-12 services; and bolster the content and visibility for PBS SoCal’s OC Channel.

The latest iPhone app release for public media is tailor-made for attendees of this week’s Public Media Development and Marketing conference in Pittsburgh. The app is built to run on the iOS4 iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and includes details of the full conference schedule, maps of the conference hotel, and links to PMDMC Facebook and Twitter feeds. The Publink icon offers discounts to Pittsburgh restaurants and cultural venues. The app, offered by DEI and co-sponsors JacAPPS and Publink, is a free download from the iTunes store.

The seven Local Journalism Centers that launched with major support from CPB have suddenly found themselves on a short timeline to find ways to earn more of their keep. So far, CPB has committed only the two-year sums announced at the initiative’s launch last year and has told some grantees to expect smaller amounts for 2012. Uncertainties over future CPB aid — as well as problems with the diffuse management structures that cloud decision-making and fiscal accountability for at least one LJC — have complicated plans to keep the regional news collaborations going, according to news directors who participated in a June 24 panel at the Public Radio News Directors conference in Arlington, Va.

Independent journalists in public media are having an increasingly tough time earning a living as producers for public TV and radio, according to a survey commissioned by the Association of Independents in Radio and the Independent Television Service. Over the past three years, 66 percent of radio indies who responded to the survey reported worsening financial problems. The survey by Market Trends Research, backed by CPB, drew responses from 206 indies who have created content for public TV, radio or affiliated websites in the past two years. The income outlook among radio indies, who made up 75 percent of survey respondents, is somewhat brighter than for those working in television, film and web production.