The contextual ads that pbs.org began introducing in January will begin expanding onto more of its websites, Cindy Johanson tells paidcontent.org. "Once we have more inventory in place, we see sponsored links as one of several strategies to help generate revenue," Johanson writes in an e-mail Q&A.

Two of the San Francisco Bay Area's five public TV stations -- San Francisco's KQED-TV/FM and KTEH-- announced they are merging into a new nonprofit, Northern California Public Broadcasting. KQED's Jeff Clarke will be president. Both stations are in good financial shape, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The combo also includes TV station KCAH in Monterey and KQEI-FM in Sacramento. Mergers in public TV have been rare. Two recent ones involved New York's WNET, which combined with neighbor WLIW in 2001 and acquired control of WXEL in Palm Beach, Fla., this year. In 1994, Seattle's KCTS took responsibility for a KYVE in Yakima, Wash.

Edtech expert Andy Carvin hosts PBS's new blog for K-12 educators, learning.now. Carvin's first column, posted today, challenges school districts to develop more reasonable approaches to filtering Internet content.