Layoffs Hit Huffington Post

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, according to The NYPost.

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.