Immediately after completing its acquisition of
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Verizon
Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) began trimming its
expanding media portfolio. The Huffington Post, operated by Verizon subsidiary AOL, laid off 39 employees Tuesday, including the
publication’s lone Pulitzer Prize winner.
Media Layoffs
The layoffs make way for Verizon’s new digital unit, Oath, a union of Yahoo and AOL assets, and are expected to be the first of
about 2,100, according to a HuffPost
report.
Oath declined to comment on plans for consolidation or the operational and budgetary impact of the Yahoo acquisition on existing
media brands, such as AOL News.
"It's day two ━ and we just don't have all the answers yet,” a spokesperson told Benzinga, suggesting a timeline of “a couple
weeks [or] months.”
Market speculation suggests continued disturbance to Verizon’s editorial teams. In April, the New York Post reported rumors of Verizon’s interest
in Time Inc (NYSE: TIME), the publisher of
Sports Illustrated, Time, People and InStyle. Time cut 300 employees across its brands Monday.
Meanwhile, HuffPost is undergoing continued transformation following the loss of co-founder Arianna Huffington and rise of
editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen. Polgreen has already overseen a website rebranding as she effects a new vision for the digital
publication.
And now she presses on with a shrinking staff, including six fewer journalists in its Washington bureau. The firm’s recently
released members will receive a severance package including continued health benefits, two months’ salary and a week of pay for
each year of tenure, according to a statement from the publication’s union, Writers Guild of America.
Related Link: Verizon Deal Delay:
What Does It Mean For Yahoo, Alibaba Investors?
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