In your pokey Thursday media column: the latest Katie Couric rumors, The Daily's quite unprofitable, MTV's CEO resigns, more Bill Keller columnizing, and some WaPo departures.
Nikki Finke says that MTV is planning a massive round of layoffs. And they've decided to do it on Tuesday so that the news is totally overshadowed by Election Day. True? We don't know. But it isn't a bad idea. All those hipstery PAs won't know whether to mourn the loss of their jobs or celebrate the election of Barack Obama, and we're guessing the two will cancel one another out. That Judy is a clever one, isn't she? [Deadline Hollywood]
Sources are telling us this afternoon that the executives at MTV have decided against returning to Las Vegas, the scene of the 2007 Video Music Awards, for the 2008 incarnation of the show. Instead, this year's VMAs will be broadcast live on September 7 from the Paramount Pictures Studio in Los Angeles. While one source told Defamer that it was a case of "been there, done that", a separate source told us that the "very chaotic" proceedings last year had something to do with the decision not to return to The Palms Hotel in Vegas (where, you'll recall, a clearly out-of-shape Britney Spears nearly killed her career with a zombified rendition of "Gimme More").
Judy McGrath is the former chair and CEO of MTV Networks, the Viacom-owned cable behemoth that controls every other cable channel on the dial including MTV, VH1, TV Land, Comedy Central, CMT, and Nickelodeon.
Was MTV trying to get away with snowing contractors into signing away benefits by just sort of, you know, not mentioning it and hoping for the best? "We were distributed the paperwork and told that we were to fill it out because MTV was changing payroll companies. There was no mention of the insurance change AT ALL," says one freelancer, who was not pleased to learn of the change in her work conditions from the Internets. Full memo after the jump.
Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV (and former recipe writer for Mademoiselle and amateur paremiologist), sheds light on MTV's target demographic: "When you have a child (mine is12), it's a gift, and a live-in focus group. She was doing her homework while listening to music online. She said, 'Mom, found this band called Jefferson Airplane. Who are they?' I thought, in the words of Justin Timberlake, what goes around comes around." [NYT]
Last week, we spread the rumor that MTV would be firing around 500 people this week. This morning, chairman and CEO Judy McGrath sent around an email—at 6:17 a.m., no less—announcing that in order to "explore new business models" because their "industry is at an inflection point" (??), only 250 people will be let go. The full email is after the jump; please read it and let us know if you're any clearer on what an 'inflection point' is afterwards.
The recent staffing changes over at MTV Networks made us curious: What exactly is going on at everyone's favorite former home of music videos? A former Viacom staffer is on hand to answer our questions. After the jump, analysis and what's probably a little axe-grinding. Either way, it's not a pretty picture. Much like that shot of MTV Global Digital Media Whatever Mika Salmi.
