by Tegan Jones, editor

Jim Lehrer is as familiar to PBS viewers as Big Bird and Elmo. Since 1975, he’s delivered the news on public television—first as a co-anchor with Robert MacNeil on the “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” and later as a lone voice on the show’s next incarnation, “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”

But this September, the exalted show will change again. While Lehrer will remain the show’s executive editor, his name will be removed from the title and a co-anchor will once again share the desk. Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff or Jeffrey Brown will sit alongside him, depending on the day.

The new “PBS NewsHour” format, which will include more reports from the field and daily webcasts from the newsroom, aims to create a more engaging and integrated experience for both TV and online viewers, Linda Winslow, the executive producer of “NewsHour” told the New York Times. She hopes breaking up the show into digestible parts online will give viewers the chance to watch at their own pace.

“Many people simply don’t have the time to watch a one-hour broadcast of anything anymore,” she says.

PBS’s announcement coincided with the annual PBS Showcase conference, where public broadcasting executives and programmers across the country come together to discuss industry challenges and opportunities. This year, PBS, like most media organizations, is focused on finding innovative ways to survive the economic slump.

Overall corporate funding is down 20 percent in the past five years, from about $125 million in 2004 to $100 million today, according to The Baltimore Sun, which has made a significant impact on many of PBS’s shows. But "NewsHour" hopes to pull out of the downturn with a fresh new model, thanks to a recent grant provided by tech giant Intel.

"We're not fat and sassy right now, but we're hanging in there," Winslow told The Sun. "I think that the grant was an indication of something. I can't put my finger on it or prove it, but things no longer look as bleak as they did last fall."