Mediagazer: Sources: Walmart has abandoned plans to launch a new streaming service after talks with the former CEO of Epix fell apart, will instead concentrate on Vudu (Alex Sherman/CNBC)

Facebook removed 364 pages and accounts for misrepresenting themselves when they were in fact linked to employees of Sputnik, a Russian-backed news agency — Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.

Discussion: DFRLab, New York Times, Press Gazette, CNN, @benimmo, Adweek, Gizmodo, RT, Mashable, @thegrugq, @kevinroose, DFRLab, Fast Company, @yashalevine, Business Insider, ABC News, TechCrunch, @leaskyht, Engadget, The Hill, The Week and Mediaite, more at Techmeme »

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Jewish publication The Forward is suspending its print edition and laying off 40% of its staff, including Editor-in-Chief Jane Eisner — The Forward is stopping — its print editions. — The storied Jewish-American publication is suspending its print operations and plans to lay off …

Discussion: MediaPost, Haaretz, @pgourevitch, @elilake and @rabbijilljacobs

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Les Moonves will pursue an arbitration claim to fight CBS for the $120M severance he was denied after the board determined he was fired for cause — Former CBS Corp. chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves will pursue an arbitration claim to fight CBS for the $120 million severance that he was denied …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Hollywood Reporter, Multichannel News, Business Insider, Adweek, The Wrap, Crain's New York Business, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, @eriqgardner and Editor & Publisher

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Alexa will now deliver news briefings to US users in a “newscaster” voice, using tech that adapts Alexa's speaking style to the context of a request — Amazon already gave Alexa the ability to whisper, and now it's rolling out another way to change the assistant's speaking style …

Discussion: The Amazon Blog, VentureBeat, Mashable and Engadget

Matt Lopez / The Wrap:

Study: 30% of Gen Z'ers and 56% of Millennials say they use Facebook to watch the news, while only 27% and 22% respectively use YouTube to watch it — Facebook is used the most for news coverage, while YouTube is used for career development and entertainment purposes, according to new study

Discussion: Mobile Marketer and wibbitz

Michael Schneider / Variety:

Viceland will launch Vice Live, a two-hour show at 9pm ET Monday-Thursday that recaps the day in pop culture and social media, starting February 25 — F-k it, Viceland is doing it live. The cable network will revamp its primetime lineup next month to launch a nightly two-hour live show …

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: Walmart has abandoned plans to launch a new streaming service after talks with the former CEO of Epix fell apart, will instead concentrate on Vudu — - Talks with veteran media executive Mark Greenberg fell apart last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Matthew Champion / BuzzFeed News:

Ahmed Hussein-Suale, a journalist in Ghana who helped expose corruption in African soccer, was shot dead Wednesday by gunmen in an Accra suburb — An investigative journalist who helped expose corruption in soccer in Africa has been shot dead in Ghana. — Ahmed Hussein-Suale was shot twice …

Discussion: Associated Press, @anasglobal, @nakufoaddo, BBC, Committee to Protect …, Al Jazeera and @globalfreemedia

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:

Showrunner Jason Katims, known for Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, is leaving Universal TV for Apple, as tech companies lure show creators away from studios — The ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘Parenthood’ grad will depart his longtime home at Universal Television and create and develop new projects for the tech giant.

BBC:

Trial of BBC Asian Network editor Arif Ansari begins; suit alleges he is responsible for reporter naming sexual assault victim, thinking it was a pseudonym — BBC Asian Network's head of news has gone on trial over the naming of a victim of sexual abuse in a live radio broadcast, a charge he denies.

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

New York Times Politics Editor Patrick Healy is using Twitter to give readers an insight into the paper's decision-making process, in an effort to build trust — You can guess the kinds of complaints The New York Times gets about its political coverage. It's too biased, too liberal.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @niemanlab, Politico, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, LGBTQ Nation, Right Wing Watch and Decider

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

Streaming platforms in India, including Netflix, adopt a plan to self-regulate content to forestall censorship by the state; Amazon Prime Video will not sign on — Netflix and other leading streaming video platforms have signed an agreement to self-regulate content in the booming Indian market.

Discussion: Reuters

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Facebook says it will extend its stricter political ad rules to India, Nigeria, Ukraine, and the EU ahead of upcoming elections in the next few months — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc told Reuters on Tuesday that it would extend some of its political advertising rules and tools …

Discussion: Livemint, MediaNama, TechCrunch, Adweek and Fortune, more at Techmeme »