The Daily, the tablet-only news publication News Corp. first launched on the iPad a year and a half ago, is letting go nearly a third of its staff, a spokesperson has confirmed. Approximately 50 of its 170-person staff will be laid off.
Those staffed on The Daily's editorial and sports sections will be the worst hit, AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reports. "Skeletal versions" of those sections will appear in future editions. In another cost-saving measure, the publication will only format pages in vertical -- rather than vertical and horizontal -- layouts going forward.
[More from Mashable: The Daily Hits 1st Birthday, Reaches 100,000 Paid Subscribers on iPad. What’s Next?]
The Daily has more than 100,000 paying subscribers, but the publication is still losing about $30 million per year, according to reports. In an interview with Mashable in February, publisher Greg Clayman pointed out that it takes new magazines an average of five to seven years to become profitable, and that The Daily is "on track to be ahead of that." He added, "We’re in a very good place."
That may have been the case in February, but News Corp.'s recently decision to divorce its lucrative cable and TV properties from its less profitable newspapers appears to have changed things. Last month, SmartMoney, which is a part of News Corp.'s Dow Jones unit, announced it was shuttering its print edition and letting go of 25 employees. Kafka says that News Corp. has also been quietly laying off some of the business executive in that unit.
[More from Mashable: Twitter Admits Verifying Fake @Wendi_Deng Was a Mistake]
This story originally published on Mashable here.