MTV News, at one time a generation’s cutting-edge source for all things popular culture, is on the cutting board this week after media giant Paramount Global announced it would be eliminating 25% of its domestic workforce as it works through a merger of its MTV and Showtime networks.
According to the company, the decision to shut down MTV News was made despite the company’s success in the streaming market. The parent company continues to feel “pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers,” Paramount Global said in a statement.
Head of Paramount, Showtime and MTV Chris McCarthy said that eliminating MTV News is part of a broader shift at the company focused on streamlining some services and getting rid of others. He described the cuts as a “strategic realignment.”
Employees being cut were given the news Tuesday.
The announcement that MTV News would be closing comes just a few weeks after Web-based Vice Media announced they would be canceling “Vice News Tonight” and less than a month after Buzzfeed News announced it would be shutting down.
Media job cuts have not only come for smaller outlets. The Washington Post, CNN and a number of Gannett-owned papers have announced significant layoffs in the first few months of 2023.
MTV News became a staple of youth television in the 1990s. The program’s reporting on new music and youth culture, in general, carved out a powerful niche for the company that began to break as the network moved away from its music video focus in the 2000s. Since then, MTV News has been scaled back significantly.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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