MTV News is shutting down

You may not have even realized MTV News was still a thing, but it is. But not for much longer. Variety reports that the network’s entire news division is shutting down as part of massive layoffs across Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks that will hit 25% of their employees, as their Paramount+ streaming service rebrands to Paramount+ With Showtime.

In a memo sent out to staff, Paramount Networks’ Chris McCarthy wrote that while they’ve had “success in streaming, we continue to feel pressure from broader economic headwinds like many of our peers,” and that “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%,” McCarthy said. “This is a tough yet important strategic realignment of our group.”

MTV News launched in the late ’80s with former Rolling Stone editor Kurt Loder as head anchor for The Week in Rock. which used the opening bass riff of Megadeth’s “Peace Sells” as its theme. Tabitha Soren was also an anchor, as was John Norris, and other on-camera reporters included Serena Altschul, Chris Connelly, Alison Stewart, Sway, and Gideon Yago. MTV News relaunched in 2015 with former Grantland editor Dan Fierman heading things up with an emphasis on longform journalism, though most of the staff was laid off in 2017 as part of network reorganization.

End of an era. Watch some classic MTV News / Week in Rock segments below.