MTV News Taken Off the Air After 36 Years of Broadcast Amid Mass Layoffs

MTV News has been on air for more than three decades, and now it is being forced to shut down. Paramount Media Networks shut down the news production division of MTV amid the ongoing job cuts at its parent company, Paramount Global.

The American mass media unit of Paramount Global announced this week that it has decided to end the run of MTV News after 36 years on broadcast. The company is also laying off 25% of its workforce, which is apparently one reason why the news channel is being taken down.

This would be the end of MTV News as the decision is final and permanent. The head of Paramount Media Networks, Showtime, and MTV, Chris McCarthy, said through a memo that the company is feeling the pressure of economic slowdown thus, despite their success in streaming, they had to reduce the workforce which will also result in the ending of some shows.

“We feel pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers. As a result, we have made the very hard but necessary decision to reduce our domestic team by approximately 25%,” McCarthy explained in the memo. “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.”

CNN Business reported that affected staff are being notified about the layoff, in person, this week. The discontinuation of MTV News comes less than a month after another major news outlet, BuzzFeed, said it would terminate its news unit.

Moreover, Vice Media also pulled down its “Vice News Tonight” due to restructuring. It was noted that prior to its shutdown, MTV was already struggling and has been scaled down in recent years.

McCarthy further said that the decision to phase out MTV News is also part of the company’s strategic realignment to reduce costs and boost other more profitable divisions. He said this move will allow the company to be more effective as it continues with its business.

Meanwhile, it was mentioned on Fox News that MTV News was first launched in 1987. It has been followed by the older millennials Gen X who prefer alternative news networks that focus on a mix of various fields such as music, politics, culture, and current news.

Photo by: Mtvpersian/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)