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August 1, 2012updated 14 Sep 2012 2:41pm

News Corp axes 50 staff at The Daily

By Andrew Pugh

News Corp's digital newspaper The Daily is making almost a third of its staff redundant.

Fifty employees – or 29 per cent of full-time staff – will be laid off as part of an editorial restructure in its sports and opinion sections.

News Corp said these sections saw the lightest traffic and that sports reporting will now be provided by content partners such as Fox Sports and there will be little in the way of original reporting.

The Daily's standalone opinion section is being dropped altogether and editorials will instead appear in the news pages "from time to time as appropriate".

Under the restructure plans The Daily, which is available on tablet devices, will also move to a portrait-only orientation.

Despite the cuts News Corp insisted: 'The Daily will continue to invest in the content its readers use the most: original reporting, strong visual elements, great photography and video, award-winning design, infographics, and interactivity.

'These are the features that continue to make The Daily unique and that have seen heaviest traffic; they will make up a greater percentage of each edition going forward."

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Editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo added: 'Unfortunately, these changes have forced us to make difficult decisions and to say goodbye to some colleagues who have worked hard to make The Daily successful.

'These moves were driven by the needs of the business. The Daily is the first of its kind, and it remains the best of its class.

'We are still in the infancy of this innovative new media platform, but we have delivered excellent content, steadily increasing readership, quality reporting, and award-winning design.

'Our standards will not diminish as we move forward, nor will our enthusiasm for creating an outstanding daily digital publication."

The News comes just over a week after Rupert Murdoch stepped down from the boards of all his newspaper businesses.

News Corp described the move as "corporate house-cleaning" following the decision revealed on 28 June to split the group into two entities – one focusing on TV and film entertainment and the other comprising the newspaper and book publishing interests.

The decision led to mounting speculation that the company plans to sell off its newspaper publishing interests.

Last month Murdoch announced that he will no longer tolerate losses at any of his titles.

According to a report in The Guardian today, The Daily is understood to have around 100,000 paying subscribers to its iOS and Android editions but lost $30m in its first year.

The title costs 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year.

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