Buried in a column on the US website Politico are the grim details of why the UK bosses of the Guardian’s American operations ordered the sacking of 40 of the company’s 150 employees last week.

Politico said it had gotten its hands on financial details that provide “more color” on the sackings. They show that the US website is a black hole, losing more money than it took in revenue in 2015-16.

In August, Guardian Media Group CEO David Pemsel gave Guardian US employees an update on the state of the company’s finances. He said that GMG’s goals for 2016-17 were to cut costs by 38 million pounds ($49 million) and to lose less than 40 million pounds ($52 million). That would keep GMG on the path to break even by April 2019. Since the beginning of the year, GMG has already eliminated nearly 270 jobs in the UK, which is expected to save it about 17 million pounds ($22 million) per year. — Glenn Dyer