New PBS Chief to Target a New Audience : Television: Jennifer Lawson will be the first black to hold the top programming spot at a major network.

Jennifer Lawson, the new programming chief of the Public Broadcasting Service, said Friday that she aims “to rethink public television for a new generation of viewers” and provide programs that more accurately reflect the multicultural diversity of the country.

When she takes over as PBS’ executive vice president for national programming and promotion services at the end of November, Lawson, 43, will oversee all the program and promotion services of PBS, becoming the first black to hold the top programming position at a major network. In a phone interview Friday, Lawson said it is time “to bring a new generation into public broadcasting, both as viewers and as members.”

Lawson, who has worked for the past nine years at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, applauded “Sesame Street” and other PBS children’s programming for continuing to surprise viewers with their emphasis on bilingualism and cultural variety, and said she would like to see the rest of PBS’ programming to be as striking, as educational and as entertaining.

Though she could not give specific examples, she said she was also looking to update “the look and style” of PBS programs and would encourage producers to be more inventive with the television form.

“I have no intention of turning public television into MTV,” she said, “but I look forward to working with producers to examine how people use television and how they get their information. Usually PBS offers information in the documentary form. Now we might consider something quite different and offer viewers a greater variety of formats.”

Lawson, currently the director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Television Program Fund, was named Thursday to succeed Suzanne Weil, who resigned last fall to take a position with Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah. But Lawson was given a new title that embraces promotion, reflecting her contention that telling people what is available on public television is as important as the programs themselves.

“Too many people are unaware of what we’re doing,” she said. “There is a large potential audience out there for us to tap, but in the past, people haven’t watched because they didn’t know what was on.”

Lawson is moving from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting to PBS just as Congress, the corporation and PBS are trying to resolve a dispute over which organization should be in charge of spending the more than $200 million in federal funds that are allocated to public television each year.

In the past, CPB, which initially receives the entire federal allocation for public broadcasting funds, has allocated much of it to the more than 300 individual public-television stations nationwide, which in turn channel some of that to PBS for the production of national programming. CPB, whose board is appointed by the President, has also kept millions itself to fund certain programs directly.

After complaints from independent producers and minority groups, Congress last year re-examined this process and the Senate recommended cutting CPB out of programming entirely. Eventually, Congress compromised and asked PBS, CPB and the PBS lobbying group, the National Association of Public Television Stations, to work out an agreement on who will get to spend the programming funds. No decision has been finalized, but it is expected that PBS will wind up with the bulk of the money. Lawson said that talks are progressing “quite amicably” between all the parties.

“I do think that we are at a point where there is a desire for more centralized programming leadership,” Lawson said of the expected windfall for PBS. “There is an interest in putting public broadcasting in the position to make faster, easier decisions about programming so that we can end up with the look that we want. I hope that my experience in knowing CPB will be useful in helping to provide a bridge and greater coordination in our programing.”

Lawson has worked in the CPB’s Television Program Fund, which supports major series and specials, since 1980. Before that, she was executive director of the Film Fund, a New York City foundation that funded independent films and videos on social issues. Lawson said that her work with this foundation makes her feel comfortable with the rough-and-tumble politics she might have to face at PBS, which, as with the recent documentary “Days of Rage,” often comes under fire for the presentation of controversial programs.

Lawson has also taught film production at Brookly College in New York City. Her husband, Anthony Gittens, is the executive director of the Washington International Film Festival.