MTV News Is Dead: Full Wipe of Decades of Work Inspires Passionate Reactions

UPDATED 7/2, 7:15 p.m. ET: Days after Paramount Global shut down MTV News’ online archives, the non-profit organization Internet Archive created a searchable index of more than 460,000 pages on its Wayback Machine.

According to Variety, Wayback Machine’s archive of MTV News appears to go back to 1997, but the extent to which content published over those 27 years has been preserved remains unclear.

“It’s incomplete, but it’s very impressive,” said Michael Alex, former head of MTV News’ digital group, per Variety. “It’s like a treasure when you find something you’re looking for.”

A source familiar with the company told Variety that Paramount’s shutdown was part of a broader cost-cutting measure, allegedly due to the low traffic and high maintenance costs against the little digital ad revenue it produced. The company has also allegedly retained a backup of the removed content, which also included media from CMT and Comedy Central, whose archives were also shut down.

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Capitalism killed the art star.

Indeed, in the latest sign that nothing is forever, not even the internet, MTV News is no more. As reported by Variety on Monday, the MTV News url now directs visitors to the general MTV site, leaving decades’ worth of memorable and oft-cited work no longer available.

While MTV News itself ceased operations last year amid hefty Paramount Global layoffs, the scrubbing of its extensive archive of articles and interviews is a new development. Sadly, the move is also in line with similarly shortsighted strategies from other companies, who almost always seem hell-bent on stripping culture for parts and/or taking established brands and rendering them unrecognizable.

For writers, the MTV News fate leaves an especially sour taste in one's mouth. But don't take my word for it. Below, see how the lowering of MTV News into the proverbial coffin is being mourned on social media.