The Daily, the tablet-only newspaper started by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, with assistance from Apple, is laying-off almost a third of its staff, amid poor sales.
The expensively-assembled paper, which started life as an iPad exclusive in 2011 but is now available for Android too, will let go 50 members of its 170-strong staff, mostly from the sports and opinion desks.
Amid rumours that the newspaper will close its doors for good, the sports section will be catered for by Fox Sports, while the opinion section will be cut completely.
The Guardian reports that security was called to escort those culled journalists out of the building when the announcement was made. Wow, that's rough.
Born of change
Editor in Chief Jesse Angelo says the team will adapt to the changes after denying reports that the closure is imminent.
"The Daily was born of change," he said. "A changing technological landscape – the beginning of the tablet and smartphone revolution – made us want to rethink how we create media. And we believe that a healthy product and a healthy organization is one that continues to change.
"Unfortunately, these changes have forced us to make difficult decisions and to say goodbye to some colleagues who have worked hard to make The Daily successful. These moves were driven by the needs of the business. The Daily is the first of its kind, and it remains the best of its class," he added.
The paper is also making some design changes and will now only produce pages that appear vertically, rather than dynamically shifting to horizontal.
The newspaper, which had an editorial team of over 100 at launch in February 2011 is believed to have 100,000 paying customers, but lost $30,000,000 in its first year, according to the Guardian's report.
Via: Guardian
