Yahoo has just announced that they are simplifying their business and focusing their efforts on – News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle. To this end, Yahoo will begin phasing out the following Digital Magazines: Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate.
A source familiar with the matter told Capital New York that Yahoo was ending its tech vertical and moving some of its staff — including former New York Times columnist David Pogue — to Yahoo’s news vertical. Eater first reported that the food vertical was being shut down and Skift first reported that the travel vertical was being shut down. Re/code also reports that the beauty vertical is being axed. In addition, Silicon Beat reports that Yahoo chief scientist Ron Brachman and V.P. of research Ricardo Baeza-Yates are leaving the company.
Yahoo simplifying their business is a step in the right direction, but they spent a lot of time and effort transforming their digital magazines. In 2014 they totally revised Yahoo Food, Yahoo Movies and a number of other properties. Yahoo poached a number of really smart people to serve as editorial directors, such as Josh Wolk, the former Entertainment Weekly senior editor and Elle veteran Joe Zee who ran Yahoo Fashion.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
