AOL's HuffPost hit by Verizon's post-Yahoo merger layoffs

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption A new Verizon acquisition means its empire just got bigger A year after the deal was made, Verizon has officially acquired Yahoo, and Marissa Mayer announced her resignation as CEO. Video provided by Newsy

Just a day after Verizon closed its acquisition of Yahoo and merged it with AOL, AOL's HuffPost has announced layoffs.

The news outlet, co-founded by Arianna Huffington in 2005, reported more than three dozen journalists were laid off Wednesday in a news story. The Writers Guild of America, East, in a statement said 39 members at HuffPost were laid off "as part of a corporate-wide layoff in connection with Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo."

Editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen is expected to address staffers in the HuffPost's New York headquarters Wednesday afternoon, the site reported. Earlier in the day, she visited the outlet's Washington, D.C., bureau, which had more than six journalists laid off including senior military correspondent David Wood, who in 2012 won HuffPost's only Pulitzer Prize for a multimedia series on military veterans.

Several HuffPost staffers noted on Twitter they were let go, while several others offers online recommendations for their departed co-workers. Foreign affairs reporter Akbar Shahid Ahmed tweeted about White House reporter Christina Wilkie: "Since my first day at HuffPost, @christinawilkie has wowed me with tips, tricks, kindness, scoops & gossip. Hire this hero & swamp expert!"

Since my first day at HuffPost, @christinawilkie has wowed me with tips, tricks, kindness, scoops & gossip. Hire this hero & swamp expert! — Akbar Shahid Ahmed (@AkbarSAhmed) June 14, 2017

A lot of amazing reporters were let go today. I'll let those people announce the news, but I'd recommend hiring every one of them. https://t.co/OcQrZDMsqs — Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) June 14, 2017

Verizon had been expected to reduce by 15% the size of the staff of the combined AOL-Yahoo company after the merger became final, which it did Tuesday.

That meant Oath, the new company created by the merger of AOL and Yahoo, would cut as many as 2,100 jobs from its total 14,000 employees, a person familiar with the situation but was not authorized to speak publicly on the situation told USA TODAY at the time.

In addition to HuffPost, among Oath's other news outlets are Autoblog, Engadget, TechCrunch, Yahoo News and women's storytelling site Makers. Originally named the Huffington Post, the news site became HuffPost two months ago. Arianna Huffington left HuffPost in August 2016 to start wellness company Thrive Global.

The HuffPost job cuts came on a day when two other news outlets had just been hit with staff reductions. The nation's largest magazine publisher Time Inc., on Wednesday said it was reducing its global staff by 300 employees as part of a restructuring plan. Also Wednesday, online news site Vocativ said it had laid off its editorial staff to shift to an all-video format.

Both Time and Vocativ plan to continue hire to strengthen areas as part of their restructuring moves.

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Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.