MTV News has been shut down
MTV News, which first appeared on screens in the early 1980s, will shut down. The announcement comes just six years after many staff members lost their jobs at MTV News when the company decided to ditch their long-form journalism content.
Significant layoffs will also occur at Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios, and Paramount Media Networks groups as Showtime is integrated into Paramount+ With Showtime.
Since MTV News launched as a brief interlude between music videos every hour, it has expanded to become an important news outlet, often used as a platform by presidential candidates.
However, the layoffs come as Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy explains: “Through the elimination of some units and by streamlining others, we will be able to reduce costs and create a more effective approach to our business as we move forward.”
He added: “Today we will notify employees whose positions are being impacted with leaders communicating the news directly to those teams/or individuals. These meetings will be followed by individual 1:1s with our HR partners.”
McCarthy also wrote, “Despite this success in streaming, we continue to feel pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers. To address this, our senior leaders in coordination with HR have been working together over the past few months to determine the optimal organization for the current and future needs of our business. As a result, we have made the very hard but necessary decision to reduce our domestic team by approximately 25%.”
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