Paramount Guts History To Save Money And We All Suffer From Their Cheapness

So often in the last decade, whenever a major media company says it will engage in “cost cutting,” it’s the writers, editors, photojournalists, producers, etc. who bear the greatest brunt of these decisions, as opposed to the well-paid executives making them.

In a recent town hall, Paramount’s “Office of the CEO” — a made-up title given to co-chief executives George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins so they can do a job typically done by one person — shared plans for how the troubled company would save half a billion dollars in costs amid “unforgivable” profit drops.

The debt-saddled Paramount has been the subject of merger or sales talks for several months. But after the proposed deal with its best known suitor, David Ellison’s Skydance (now apparently back on), fell apart, the three men sought to assuage concerns about the direction of the company.

“We know what a difficult and disruptive period it has been,” Robbins explained to those in attendance. “And while we cannot say that the noise will disappear, we are here today to lay out a go-forward plan that can set us up for success no matter what path the company chooses to go down.”

Part of that path included gutting the websites of the company’s best known cable assets.

The day before this meeting took place, Paramount quietly took down MTVNews.com — and with it, more than 25 years worth of content.

Granted, as a news organization, MTV News had been shuttered since 2023, but the site still maintained thousands of articles, columns, interviews, and features, showcasing a bevy of different artists and producers spanning several genres and generations. It also includes a litany of social and political journalism from perspectives that, at the time they were