MTV News will be shut down as part of massive layoffs across Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios, and Paramount Media Networks groups, reports Variety.
Back in 2017, MTV News was hit with significant layoffs and pivoted back to video and short-term content after spending a few years focusing its digital strategy on longform journalism.
Launched in the early ’80s, MTV News started as a brief roundup of music news that popped up once an hour between music videos. By the late ’80s, however, the Kurt Loder-hosted show The Week in Rock was launched, paving the way for MTV News to make a significant impact with its interviews of music celebrities by hosts like Loder, SuChin Pak, Sway Calloway, Tabitha Soren, John Norris, and more.
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Perhaps more importantly, MTV News became a must-stop for presidential candidates beginning with its first political coverage in 1992 and the launch of its “Choose or Lose” campaign to inform, educate, and encourage young viewers to vote. Kicking off with the presidential election of Bill Clinton against George H.W. Bush, it continued with Al Gore’s campaign against George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s run against John McCain. MTV News also earned Emmy and Peabody Awards for its coverage on the Iraq War and other significant world events.
All told, the layoffs will affect 25% of employees between Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios, and Paramount Media Networks. The group will be reorganized into “two functions”: Studios, which will be made up of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, and networks, which will combine “nine separate teams into one portfolio group.” The affected networks include Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, CMT, Smithsonian, TV Land, Logo, and Pop TV.
