Mediagazer: ABC News to hire CBS's Byron Pitts (Dylan Byers/Politico)

8:50 AM ET, March 1, 2013

Top News:

Lex Google: Germany Waters Down Search Engine Legislation — A new law regulating the indexing of media articles by search engines like Google and Bing is likely to pass on Friday. The watered-down legislation won't force the kind of payments to publishers the Internet giant had feared.

Discussion: Financial Times, @anked and German Pulse

Associated Press:

German Parliament OKs Watered-Down Copyright Law — BERLIN (AP) — A bill broadening copyright protections for material used on the Internet has been approved by Germany's lower house of Parliament - but without provisions that worried Google and other search engines.

Discussion: GigaOM, ITworld.com, ZDNet and Bloomberg

Mathias Schindler / Search Engine Land:

New German Law Will Allow Free “Snippets” By Search Engines, But Uncertainty Remains — The good news for search engines like Google is a proposed German copyright law won't require them to pay to show short summaries of news content. However, uncertainty remains about how much might be “too much” and require a license.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and VentureVillage

Erik Wemple:

Bradley Manning raises a question: How do you tip off the New York Times? — Last year, a big fight in journo-critic world addressed whether the New York Times should have a correspondent front and center for the trial of Bradley Manning, the famous WikiLeaker.

Discussion: paidContent

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Former New York Times Public Editor Doesn't Recall Bradley Manning's Call — When Pfc. Bradley Manning pled guilty Thursday to ten of 22 charges Thursday in connection with leaking a cache of classified documents to WikiLeaks, he also revealed having first approached three news outlets: the Washington Post, New York Times and Politico.

Discussion: Pressing Issues, Firedoglake, Wired, Poynter, Guardian and Gawker

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Bradley Manning Tried Going To NY Times, Washington Post, Politico Before Turning To WikiLeaks

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, @jackshafer, @charlie_savage, @jeffjarvis, @thematthewkeys, @thematthewkeys, @chanders, @jackshafer, @charlie_savage and @elspethrb

Dylan Byers / Politico:

ABC News to hire CBS's Byron Pitts — ABC News is finalizing a deal to hire Byron Pitts, a contributor to “60 Minutes” and chief national correspondent for the CBS Evening News, POLITICO has learned. — Pitts will serve as both chief national correspondent and anchor at ABC News, and will appear across the network's programming.

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

A BusinessWeek cover crosses a line — Minorities as greedy grotesqueries fueling a new housing bubble — Bloomberg BusinessWeek is a lot edgier than its predecessor, at least where design is concerned. Sometimes it's too edgy, like when it takes two minutes to read some headline intentionally designed to be barely legible.

Discussion: Slate, Politico, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Jamelle Bouie, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Media Decoder, BAGnewsNotes, HousingWire, The Raw Story, AlterNet.org, @chanders, @romenesko, The Stream and @chanders

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:
Bloomberg Businessweek editor wishes he hadn't published controversial housing cover

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Observer and Boing Boing

Kylie Davis / INMA:

Content marketing is our next big revenue threat — unless we embrace it now — Rather than view content marketing as a threat, news media companies need to see an exciting opportunity worth exploring right now. Otherwise, we'll be edged out by the new competition — our own advertising clients.

Charlotte Higgins / Guardian:

BBC's new director general warns against reckless risk-taking — Tony Hall, who takes over in April, also emphasises need to ‘give people confidence to be bold and run with what they want to do’ — • Read the full interview in Saturday's Guardian — A reckless approach …

Wall Street Journal:

Imagining Pay-TV if Bundles Unravel — What happens when the “bundle” begins to unravel? — The question is taking on intense importance for the cable-TV business, which for decades has forced customers to subscribe to groups, or bundles, of channels—whether they wanted them or not.

Discussion: Corporate Intelligence

Politico:

Exclusive: The Woodward, Sperling emails revealed — POLITICO's “Behind the Curtain” column last night quoted Bob Woodward as saying that a senior White House official has told him in an email he would “regret” questioning White House statements on the origins of sequestration.

Don Jeffrey / Bloomberg:

Dish Loses 3 of 4 Claims Against ESPN in Contract Dispute — Dish Network Corp. (DISH) lost three of four claims it brought against Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN over terms of a sports programming contract, as a jury awarded Dish only $4.85 million of the $153 million it sought.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

As Nook revenues plunge, B&N says it's “calibrating” strategy but “committed” to devices — Barnes & Noble had warned investors that its third-quarter Nook earnings would be disappointing. The earnings report was released before the market opened Thursday morning, and indeed, Nook revenues …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, paidContent, Quartz, Melville House Books, Media Decoder, Reuters, Fast Company, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Media & Entertainment, AppNewser, Home Media Magazine, PublishersWeekly.com, GalleyCat and Reuters

John Kell / Wall Street Journal: Riggio's Plan Questioned by Shareholder on Barnes & Noble Call

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

AOL's Chief Operating Officer to Exit — AOL Chief Operating Officer Artie Minson plans to leave the company by year-end, according to people familiar with the matter, amid a restructuring that the company announced Thursday that eliminates his position and brings in media veteran Susan Lyne to oversee some of AOL's content properties.