“You can layer in video. You can change the content. You can bring in the social aspect. You can tell someone, ‘Oh, by the way, your friend also read this article and thought it was interesting,’ ” she said. “A magazine, all 10 million copies have to be the same. Digitally, you can personalize it. You can put different advertisements that are more meaningful to the users in each one.”

In reality, Yahoo’s personalization technology never reached that level of sophistication. The editors of the magazines were constantly fighting with the people who ran Yahoo’s home page to get prominent display for their work. The home page editors, relying on reader data and computer algorithms, preferred to run articles licensed by Yahoo from other sites because they drew more traffic.

The magazines also struggled to draw in relevant advertising. Virtually none of them were profitable, according to a person with knowledge of their finances, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the company considers that data to be confidential.

Martha Nelson, global editor in chief of Yahoo and head of its media properties, declined an interview request.

But in a blog post on Tumblr, she said that Yahoo was closing its magazines on food, health, parenting, crafts, travel, autos and real estate. Some of the cuts were effective immediately; others are being phased in.

“As we make these changes, we acknowledge the talent and dedication of an extraordinary group of journalists who brought new and newsworthy content to Yahoo,” she wrote. “While these digital magazines will no longer be published, you will continue to find the topics they covered, as well as style, celebrity, entertainment, politics, tech and much more across our network.”

Yahoo Tech, introduced with great fanfare by Ms. Mayer at the International CES Show two years ago, will continue to exist for the moment with a smaller staff, including Mr. Pogue, although its content will eventually be folded into Yahoo News.

In a farewell note to the Yahoo Tech staff that was published by Politico, its editor, Dan Tynan, said, “I am sure that bigger and better things await all of us. As for Yahoo, I am sure it will continue to be Yahoo, for better or worse. And some day we’ll all have a good laugh about it. Just not this week.”