MTV News will close down as parent Paramount Global cuts 25 percent of staff

MTV News will close for good, ending a 36-year run in which it first ran a successful television show but then failed to adapt to the turbulent news industry. 

The closure comes as part of layoffs announced by parent company Paramount, which said on Tuesday it will cut 25 percent of its total staff.

Paramount Global, which encompasses MTV Entertainment, CBS, Nickelodeon and Showtime, will also streamline its national cable news networks, the company said.

The pairing down was described in a memo shared with staff as being caused by 'broader economic headwinds like many of our peers'.

Paramount is combining nine separate teams and already announced plans to merge its Showtime and MTV studios, Bloomberg News reported.

MTV News will close for good, ending a 36-year run in which it first ran a successful television show but then failed to adapt to the turbulent news industry

Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks President Chris McCarthy wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday it was laying off 25 percent of staff on Tuesday in response to 'economic headwinds'

The cuts were announced in a memo, obtained and published by Variety, in which MTV Entertainment Studios President Chris McCarthy wrote: 'We have made the very hard but necessary decision to reduce our domestic team by approximately 25 percent.

'This is a tough yet important strategic realignment of our group. 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.'

MTV News was established in 1987 as a news production division of the Music Television Network and presented itself as an alternative source of news for a younger generation disenfranchised by cable news giants like CNN.

It was launched as The Week in Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder a Rolling Stone writer and music critic, before morphing into MTV News. Loder continued to host MTV News until 2005 and famously broke the news of Kurt Cobain's death.

MTV News first made a name for itself with coverage of issues like gay marriage and eating disorders, according to a 2016 article in Variety. In 1992 it covered the presidential election between Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush.

A story in the New York Times at the time, read: 'MTV has hit the campaign trail, mixing interviews and reports on the candidates into its 24 hours of music programming tailored to an audience of 25 million, mostly 18 to 24 years old.'

Over the years it covered politics with some success and prominent elected officials including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney all gave interviews on its platform. 

Staying true to its roots, it still maintained coverage of music news - in 1995 it interviewed David Bowie and the Notorious B.I.G.

MTV News was launched as The Week in Rock, and hosted by Kurt Loder (pictured), a Rolling Stone writer and music critic

As it moved into the 2000s, MTV News was rocked by the internet, though it did attempt to adapt to the times by publishing digital content on its website and social media platforms.

Throughout the next two decades, it experimented with different business models. In 2016, Variety reported that it would adopt an approach akin to that of Vice and Buzzfeed.

Last week Vice said it was preparing to file for bankruptcy as it has failed to find a buyer. Similarly, BuzzFeed announced it would be shutting down its news operation altogether on April 20.

News of the closure of MTV News comes a week after Paramount shares collapsed and the company reported an 11 percent decline in ad sales at its traditional TV networks and a $511 million loss in streaming, according to Bloomberg.