News

News Corp's The Daily culls staff

Tablet-based publication The Daily is cutting almost a third (29%) of its full-time staff.

The News Corporation owned title, specially designed for tablet devices, will lay off 50 of its 170-strong staff. The cuts will hit the sports and opinion sections the most with sports content instead coming from other sources within News Corporation family including Fox Sports and the opinion section being removed altogether.

The two sections affected generated the lowest traffic figures amongst users. As part of changes to the publication, The Daily will instead focus on areas that generate the most traffic including original reporting, photography, video, infographics and interactive elements.

The Daily will also set the title to a portrait-only orientation, which is the mode that most readers consumer content in.

“These are important changes that will allow The Daily to be more nimble editorially and to focus on the elements that our readers have told us through their consumption that they like and want,” says The Daily editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo.

The Daily launched 18 months ago. To properly tailor the title to the iPad, News Corporation worked closely with Apple and its late chief executive Steve Jobs in its production. Despite collecting more than 100,000 paying subscribers across iOS and Android platforms, reports state that it has still been losing money since its launch.

“We continue to believe in the future of tablet publications because we know the market for tablets and touchscreen devices will only expand,” says The Daily publisher Greg Clayman. “Like all good digital products, however, we must change and evolve to remain fresh, competitive and sustainable.”

Earlier this year News Corporation announced plans to spin off its entertainment and publishing groups into two separate companies, appeasing investors who have suggested the move for several years.

The media empire’s chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch also resigned from a number of News Corporation subsidiary boards in the UK and US, including the NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp Investments in the UK. The move was said to be a “corporate housecleaning exercise” that needed to take place before the split could begin.

David Hing, London