Coverage: Yahoo layoffs begin with digital magazines

In an effort to cut cost and restructure, Yahoo announced the “phasing out” of seven digital magazines yesterday in what could be the first round of several layoffs.

The sites include: Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate.

Peter Sterne of Politico had the day’s news:

Yahoo is shutting down a number of its content verticals, Yahoo global editor in chief Martha Nelson confirmed on Wednesday.

“On our recent earnings call, Yahoo outlined out a plan to simplify our business and focus our effort on our four most successful content areas – News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle. To that end, today we will begin phasing out the following Digital Magazines: Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate,” Nelson wrote in a Tumblr post.

In addition, a source familiar with the matter said that Yahoo was ending its tech vertical and moving some of its staff — including former New York Times columnist David Pogue — to Yahoo’s news vertical. Eater first reported that the food vertical was being shut down and Skift first reported that the travel vertical was being shut down. Re/code also reports that the beauty vertical is being axed. In addition, Silicon Beat reports that Yahoo chief scientist Ron Brachman and V.P. of research Ricardo Baeza-Yates are leaving the company.

As part of the changes, Yahoo Tech editor in chief Dan Tynan is being laid off. Tynan, who joined Yahoo Tech as a columnist in December 2013 and became editor in chief of the vertical in July 2015, announced his departure in a farewell memo to staff.

“Well, that was not entirely unexpected. Eight Hundred and Four days after taking the purple, my career as a Yahoo is over,” he wrote.

Despite the fact that Tynan is leaving and Yahoo Tech staff are moving to Yahoo News, a Yahoo spokeswoman said that Yahoo Tech — as well as Yahoo’s verticals for music, beauty, style, celebrity, TV, and movies — were unaffected by the changes announced on Wednesday.

NBC News explained just how many people Wednesday’s layoffs would impact:

The internet giant also said it would cut more than 300 jobs by April 18, as part of 1,500 layoffs announced earlier. The layoffs cover 128 employees at Yahoo’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California; 46 employees in San Francisco and 60 in Los Angeles, the newspaper reported citing a company’s note to state officials.

The company also plans to shut down its Burbank office, affecting 90 employees, according to San Francisco Chronicle.

The layoffs affect people in Yahoo’s media division, as well as employees in other roles such as engineering or research, San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Kara Swisher of Re/code detailed how Wednesday has become the company’s official layoff day:

According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has designated Wednesday as the day of the week to make massive employee cuts that the company announced at its earnings call weeks ago. But, instead of just felling the ax at once of 15 percent of staff, she has dragged the pain out in several weekly layoffs.

And today, the hits seem to be largely happening at Yahoo’s media unit and also in Los Angeles. Re/code previously reported that the division was going to see a lot of cost cuts, especially in Mayer’s once vaunted digital “magazine” efforts. It was not so long ago that the company touted its splashy plan to hire big names to helm these offerings, in food, beauty and tech. All those are now getting consolidated and reorganized, said multiple sources, with some verticals going poof.

Politico Media just reported that Yahoo Tech’s top editor Dan Tynan was leaving and that the tech vertical was being incorporated into its larger news unit. Tynan is indeed out, but Yahoo Tech, as a designation, will remain and its marquee tech reviewer, David Pogue, is staying. He was hired from the New York Times.

“I am sure that bigger and better things await all of us. As for Yahoo, I am sure it will continue to be Yahoo, for better or worse,” wrote the still funny and classy Tynan in a farewell memo. “And some day we’ll all have a good laugh about it. Just not this week.”

Food is also getting smacked, and the beauty section is getting big cuts, including the departure of editor-in-chief Bobbi Brown (hat tip to Racked!). According to Eater, its well-regarded editor Kerry Diamond is out too and the site “is being phased out.”

And travel too, as Skift has correctly reported. Top editor Laura Begley Bloom, who just replaced former top editor Paula Froelich, is gone.