MTV News shutters operations

MTV News has shuttered its operations after nearly 36 years in business. This comes five years after the news of MTV news downsizing considerably.

According to reports by Variety, 25% of the employees across Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks will lost their jobs whereas the MTV News team will be laid off completely.

The staff at Variety obtained a memo that reflected the president of Showtime and Paramount Media Networks, Chris McCarthy calling the layoffs a “very hard hard but necessary decision.”

He went on to say that it was a strategic alignment of the group as through the elimination of some units and the streamlining of others, the company managed to cut costs and increased business effectiveness. "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," he added. 

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McCarthy’s group will be consolidated into “two functions” which will be studios and networks. Studios will encompass 'showtime' and 'MTV entertainment studios' and networks, “combining nine separate teams into one portfolio group.”

The affected Paramount-owned networks include Nick, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, CMT, Smithsonian, TV Land, Logo and Pop TV as reported by media outlets. 

The networks group will take the biggest hit in terms of layoffs due to the consolidation.

These layoffs come four months after Showtime laid off 120 employees while merging into MTV Entertainment Studios as part of the overall Paramount+ With Showtime strategy, just as Showtime co-presidents Gary Levine and Jana Winograde exited their posts.

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