Less than a week after taking control of the magazine, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has instituted huge layoffs at National Geographic:

National Geographic informed employees Tuesday it would lay off about 9% of its staff, months after announcing it would partner with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox as part of an expanded joint venture.

That would amount to about 180 people out of the total 2,000 employees under the new partnership with Fox.

In September, 21st Century Fox announced a for-profit venture in which it paid $725m for control of the National Geographic Society, to create National Geographic Partners, which includes National Geographic Channels.

Magazine staffers received an email from CEO Gary Knell on Tuesday morning with instructions to make themselves available throughout the day and monitor their inboxes for information about their employment status.

“The National Geographic Society and the National Geographic Channels are in the process of reorganizing in order to move forward strategically following the closing [of] the National Geographic Partners deal, which is expected to occur in mid-November,” a spokesperson for National Geographic Society said in an emailed statement.

According to the statement, layoffs will represent about 9% of the overall workforce reduction. A “voluntary separation” offer has been made to other eligible employees.

“All staff have been advised as to their status as of closing,” the spokesperson said.

It’s like Murdoch bought Nat Geo just to kill it.

It’s like amusing yourself by pulling the wings and legs off of flies, and then putting them in the water and watching them sink.

And thus an American treasure is destroyed.