Top News:
Facebook:
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, Fortune, RT, Adweek, DFRLab, Business Insider, @yashalevine, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Mashable, @leaskyht, @thegrugq, @kevinroose, Engadget, The Hill, ABC News, 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 …
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Netflix reports mixed Q4 earnings, with revenue of $4.19B vs. $4.21B est., says it added 8.8M global paid memberships, up from its estimate of 7.6M — - The company beat Wall Street estimates for earnings per share, but fell just below projections for revenue.
Discussion:
Recode, TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Wrap, Business Insider and Fast Company
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 …
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
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
NPR has turned its news quiz, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, into a five-minute game for smart speakers that use Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa — NPR has turned its popular “Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!” news quiz show into an interactive game for smart speakers: Owners of speakers powered …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Ad Age, VentureBeat and SlashGear
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:
@newsbyschmidt, @niemanlab, @niemanlab, @ahmedkabil and @coreyford
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, BBC, Committee to Protect …, Al Jazeera and @globalfreemedia