Friday roundup: NewsHour launches new website; podcasting patent fight continues

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PBS NewsHour unveiled a redesigned website Thursday, featuring responsive design, new navigation menus and an expanded digital editorial presence. The new site combines stories from the program’s weekday and weekend editions, as Current reported in July 2013. “This new site is designed to meet the demands of an expanding and more involved audience,” NewsHour Creative Director Travis Daub wrote in an introductory post, adding that the redesign is the most expansive in the website’s 18-year history.

• Pittsburgh Public Media has applied to the FCC for permission to boost the wattage of WYZR-FM, the jazz station it launched in August 2013. The proposed boost to 10,000 watts still would not get WYZR into Pittsburgh from its location in Bethany, W.Va., PPM President Chuck Leavens told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But the upgrade would improve reception in the area WYZR already covers. Here’s WYZR’s letter to the FCC.

• Personal Audio, the company that has alleged patent infringement over podcasting technology, has subpoenaed the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation for a list of donors to a 2013 EFF crowdfunding campaign. EFF mounted the campaign to aid podcasters in the fight against Personal Audio’s litigation. According to Ars Technica, Personal Audio is arguing that it requires more information from its legal opponents, including donor information, to pursue its cases against podcasters. EFF’s campaign raised more than $80,000; the organization has filed a motion to quash the subpoena. Read more about EFF’s response here.

• A group of Michigan nonprofit media organizations — including Bridge Magazine, Detroit Public TV, Michigan Radio, New Michigan Media and WDET — launched the  Detroit Journalism Cooperative yesterday. The project is funded in part by a grant from the Knight Foundation and will work to foster community engagement around the city’s financial crisis.

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