Viacom-owned MTV News is being restructured in an attempt to make it more appealing to younger viewers, reported Variety. The department, part of MTV, will move toward more short-form video content and away from long-form journalism.
As part of the change, MTV News will part ways with some staffers and freelancers, while hiring new personnel.
In late 2015, MTV News hired Grantland Editorial Director Dan Fierman as editorial chief, and Fierman brought with him several of Grantland’s reporters and editors. Grantland, which was launched by Bill Simmons for ESPN, was shut down by ESPN around that time. Simmons moved on to HBO where he has launched website and podcasting network The Ringer.
Fierman’s team tended to produce longer pieces, said Variety, which appeared to hurt MTV News’ overall traffic. According to digital metric reporting firm Omniture, unique views for MTV News declined 64% between October 2016 and now compared to the same period last year. Omniture also reported that video-stream traffic was down 97%.
The changes come after Chris McCarthy was named president of MTV last October around the same time Bob Bakish was named Viacom’s interim CEO. Bakish became permanent CEO in December. Since then, Viacom has been undergoing restructuring across most of the company’s networks.
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READ MORE: Variety
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