About half the staff at Snapchat Discover channel “Brother” were laid off on Wednesday, less than three months after Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, launched the channel in mid-July, TheWrap has learned.
The layoffs consisted of the entire video production team of roughly 15 employees, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation. The writing team was mostly spared. One person described people as “bummed,” while another described “a grisly scene.”
“Brother” is the first brand for Murdoch’s U.K.-based media company Vertical Networks. Snapchat is an investor, but not involved in the day-to-day operations of the channel. The site targeting millennial men offers pieces like “How Not to Work This Summer” and “How to Get Ripped-ish.”
The group’s strategy has shifted away from long-form video, and content will now focus more on written articles with the aim of being “Buzzfeed for boys,” the insiders said.
One said the writing was on the wall: “I saw the analytics, so it actually wasn’t a big surprise.”
Vertical Networks did not respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment.
When “Brother” first launched in July, it was available on Snapchat only, making it just the second Snapchat-only property hosted on the app’s Discover platform. At the time of launch, Murdoch said the focus of the new brand was on “building content for mobile-first audiences.”
Snapchat owns roughy 40 percent of Vertical Networks, according to Recode.