Yahoo to ax a bunch of its digital magazines

By Trevor Mogg February 18, 2016

yahoo mail photo sync caller id smart phone mobile app smartphone — Nevodka/Shutterstock

Things have been super-busy at Yahoo this year. But not in a good way.

The company earlier this month announced it was laying off 15 percent of its 11,000-strong workforce and closing a number of overseas offices as part of measures to cut expenses by $400 million. There’s been plenty of speculation, too, about the future of Yahoo’s core Web business as pressure grows on CEO Marissa Mayer to knock the Internet pioneer into shape.

Recommended Videos

“I am asking shareholders to understand this is a complicated situation,” she said in a recent interview.

The latest? Yahoo is shuttering a bunch of its online magazines as part of a digital shake-up at the company.

In a post on Wednesday announcing the move, Martha Nelson, Yahoo’s global editor-in-chief, said the axed mags include Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos, and Yahoo Real Estate.

Nelson said the move to phase out the digital publications will allow the Web company to focus on its four “most successful” areas, namely news, sports, finance, and lifestyle.

“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,” the editor-in-chief said.

The decision to shutter the digital magazines will come as a blow to Mayer, the driving force behind the product that she also personally unveiled during CES 2014. The launch included some big hires, too, among them former NY Times columnist David Pogue for Yahoo Tech, which, incidentally, has survived the cull.

The idea to attract more eyeballs to Yahoo (and its ads) by pushing more heavily into content seemed uncertain from the start.

“Despite the bold hires and grand ambitions, the plan to turn Yahoo into a media giant has a been-there, done-that feel, and it is far from a sure thing,” the NY Times commented just a few months after the launch of Yahoo’s digital magazines.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.