• by Sara Guaglione , February 18, 2016

Yahoo Inc. announced Wednesday that it would shut down seven of its digital magazines as part of a plan to simplify its business and cut costs.

Yahoo media division's global editor-in-chief Martha Nelson announced on Yahoo’s Tumblr that most of its digital magazines are closing, including Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate.

Only its four most popular verticals - News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle - will survive.

Re/code also reports that the beauty vertical is being axed. Silicon Beat reports that Yahoo chief scientist Ron Brachman and V.P. of research Ricardo Baeza-Yates are leaving the company.

While Tech isn’t specifically mentioned in Nelson’s list of magazines shuttering, Politico Media reports that its editor in chief, Dan Tynan, has been laid off.

In a farewell memo to his staff, Tynan wrote:  "Well, that was not entirely unexpected. Eight hundred and four days after taking the purple, my career as a Yahoo is over.”

Tynan also admitted that he's faced an enormous set of internal challenges within the company.

“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,” he continued.

Yahoo has reportedly given its other Tech writers the pink slip and is moving the few that remain,including former New York Times columnist David Pogue, to Yahoo’s News vertical.

Interestingly, a Yahoo spokeswoman told Politico Media that Yahoo Tech — as well as Yahoo's verticals for music, beauty, style, celebrity, TV, and movies — were unaffected by the changes announced on Wednesday

So now we are left to wonder: Will Yahoo replace Tynan? Will Pogue and fellow remaining Tech writers continue under the leadership of a different section, like Yahoo News or Finance?

These verticals are getting the axe presumably because Yahoo’s digital audience numbers were dipping; the idea to build more verticals to attract a larger audience doesn’t always pay off. According to The Information, daily active users visiting the homepage fell by 16.5% from December 2014 to December 2015.

Yahoo announced previously that it would cut more than 300 jobs by April 18, as part of 1,500 layoffs announced earlier. The layoffs cover 128 employees at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, 46 employees in San Francisco and 60 in Los Angeles.

Yahoo also plans to shut down its Burbank office, affecting 90 employees, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.