Huffington Post began laying off journalists in New York and Washington, DC, on Wednesday, and even its Pulitzer Prize winner, David Wood, was not immune to the bloodbath that claimed at least 39 journalists.
Wood could not be reached for comment, but news of his ouster was reported by colleague Michael Calderone, who tweeted, “One especially notable journalist laid off is David Wood, who won Huff Post’s first and only Pulitzer.”
The star reporter had plenty of company.
The Writers Guild of America East, the union that in January hammered out a new three-year contract with the company, said in a statement that 39 of its members were axed:
“We have been notified that 39 WGAE members at HuffPost were laid off today as part of a corporate-wide layoff in connection with Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo.”
The Huffington Post’s parent, AOL, is absorbing Yahoo following its $4.5 billion acquisition by Verizon.
The news at Huffington Post comes as Editor-in- Chief Lydia Polgreen — a rising star on the digital news side at the New York Times before she jumped ship to succeed founder Arianna Huffington last November — is placing her stamp on the division.
She hired Jim Rich — briefly an editor-in-chief of the Daily News — to be her executive editor.
Verizon said it expected to lay off about 15 percent of the workforce — 2,100 people — as part of the Yahoo merger with AOL.
That deal closed Tuesday.
AOL and Yahoo formed a new corporate entity called Oath. AOL boss Tim Armstrong told CNBC Wednesday morning that the layoffs are “mainly focused on us putting more resources toward the front end, toward the consumer side.”