Mediagazer: Interview with Corey Ford of media accelerator Matter, which paused its media venture fund after funding from news companies dried up (Christine Schmidt/Nieman Lab)

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

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

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: @yossigestetner, @yossigestetner, @yossigestetner, @joshuamzeitz, @estherschor, The Times of Israel, @popchassid, @harry1t6, @pgourevitch, @elilake, @dorothyofisrael, @rabbijilljacobs, @sethamandel, @davidimarcus and MediaPost

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

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 …

Discussion: @fattonyrap, @evepeyser and @traciemorrissey

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

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

The BBC's first female deputy general director, Anne Bulford, will step down in the spring — The BBC's deputy director general Anne Bulford, the first woman to hold the role, has decided to leave the corporation in the spring. — Bulford rejoined the BBC as managing director of finance …

Discussion: Variety

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Interview with Corey Ford of media accelerator Matter, which paused its media venture fund after funding from news companies dried up — In its seven years, Matter.vc has shepherded 73 media startups through eight accelerator programs, funded by two rounds of investments from a bunch of media companies.

Discussion: @ahmedkabil, @coreyford, @newsbyschmidt, @niemanlab and @niemanlab

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.

Discussion: @mschappers

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, Committee to Protect …, Al Jazeera, BBC and @globalfreemedia

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

Sports Illustrated:

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is moving from February to May for the first time since it was launched in 1964 — For the first time ever, this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue will come out in May, instead of February. — Get ready for the hottest kickoff to summer EVER.