Paramount Global shuts down MTV News, which covered pop culture after 36 years of political reporting, and lays off 25% of TV Networks staff as part of brand reform
- MTV News, which started in 1987, is shutting down amid layoffs at Paramount Global
- Paramount Global Cuts 25 Percent of Staff Amid ‘Economic Headwinds’
- It already announced plans to merge its Showtime and MTV studios
MTV News is closing for good, ending a 36-year period in which it first had a successful television show, but then failed to adapt to the turbulent news industry.
The closure comes as part of layoffs announced by parent company Paramount, which said on Tuesday it will cut 25 percent of its total workforce.
Paramount Global, which includes MTV Entertainment, CBS, Nickelodeon and Showtime, will also streamline its national cable news networks, the company said.
A memo shared with staff described the pairing as being caused by “broader economic headwinds like many of our peers.”
Paramount combines nine separate teams and has already announced plans to merge its Showtime and MTV studios. This is reported by Bloomberg News.
MTV News is closing for good, ending a 36-year period in which it first hosted a successful television show but then failed to adapt to the turbulent news industry
Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday that 25 percent of staff were laid off Tuesday in response to “economic headwinds”
The cuts were announced in a memo, obtained and published by Varietyin which Chris McCarthy, president of MTV Entertainment Studios, wrote, “We made the very difficult but necessary decision to downsize our home team by about 25 percent.
“This is a difficult but important strategic realignment of our group. By eliminating some units and streamlining others, we will be able to reduce costs and create a more effective approach to our business as we move forward.”
Founded in 1987 as a news production arm of the Music Television Network, MTV News presented itself as an alternative news source for a younger generation disenfranchised by cable news giants like CNN.
It launched as The Week in Rock hosted by Kurt Loder, a Rolling Stone writer and music critic, before changing to MTV News. Loder continued to host MTV News until 2005, famously breaking the news of Kurt Cobain’s death.
According to a 2016 article in Variety. In 1992 it covered the presidential election between Bill Clinton and George HW Bush.
a story in the New York Times read at the time: ‘MTV has hit the campaign trail by mixing interviews and reports on the candidates into its 24-hour music programming tailored to an audience of 25 million, mostly aged 18 to 24.’
Over the years, it reported on politics with some success and prominent elected officials, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney, all gave interviews on its platform.
True to its roots, it continued to cover music news – in 1995 it interviewed David Bowie and the Notorious B.I.G.
MTV News was launched as The Week in Rock and hosted by Kurt Loder (pictured), a Rolling Stone writer and music critic
As it entered the 2000s, MTV News was rocked by the Internet, though it attempted to adapt to the times by publishing digital content on its website and social media platforms.
Over the next two decades, it experimented with different business models. In 2016, Variety reported that it would take an approach similar to that of Vice and Buzzfeed.
Last week, Vice said it was preparing to file for bankruptcy because it has not found a buyer. Similarly, BuzzFeed announced that it would shut down its news operation altogether on April 20.
The news of MTV News’ closure comes a week after Paramount shares collapsed and the company reported an 11 percent drop in ad sales at its traditional TV networks and a $511 million loss in streaming, according to Bloomberg.