In a statement, the publisher said that the paper will continue to be daily, publishing five days a week and focusing on its core market of San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
Florence Fang, publisher of the Examiner, said that the Examiner was following the growing freesheet newspaper model, which has already proved successful in the Metro format in other US cities and Europe.
The cuts saw around 40 people lose their jobs, with a redundancy package on average comprising just over a week's salary. The revamped freesheet will continue life with 15 reporters, editors and photographers and use news stories and features from other freesheet newspapers owned by the Fang family, which include the Bay Area freesheet San Francisco Independent and Asian Week.
"We are willing to make radical changes to serve the needs of San Francisco. Our plan from the beginning has been to use the Examiner and the Independent together to reach both the busy commuter and the homes of San Francisco residents," Fang said.
Examiner executive editor Zoran Basich said: "It's a tough business climate. We had to make some tough decisions to ensure the long-term health of the paper."
Staff at the Examiner were informed of the decision in a press conference on Friday where James Fang announced plans to relaunch as a freesheet, doing away with its 25 cents cover price.
The changes at the Examiner follow the Fang family taking control of the paper a little over two years ago in a deal with the Hearst Corporation. The $660m (£418m) deal saw Hearst take control of the much larger San Francisco Chronicle and sell on the Examiner to the Fang family in a move to avoid an anti-trust investigation.
The Examiner has been on a downward spiral since the 1960s and its fate appeared sealed after it was offloaded by Hearst in November 2000. Last May, the paper was redesigned and relaunched as a tabloid having axed its Sunday edition in April.
Many senior staff had already been fired including editor-in-chief David Burgin and other top editors.
The paper is most famous for turning public opinion in favour of the Spanish-American war in 1898 under Randolph Hearst. In its time its writers included such literary greats as Jack London and Mark Twain.
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