This week on The Disclaimer, WMSE's weekly culture chat with Ryan Schleicher, Milwaukee Record's Matt Wild and I, we're discussing the end of yet another experiment in "prestige" journalism. When music critic Jessica Hopper took the reigns of the MTV News website, she promised it would be a revolutionary experiment in music journalism, and followed through by hiring some of the youngest, most diverse music writers in the business. But like such late, beloved websites as Grantland and The Dissolve, the experiment ended it layoffs. Last week MTV News shut down the operation to focus instead of video, which is all the buzz among advertisers these days.
We devote the whole show to talking about what went wrong at MTV News, sharing some spectacular anecdotes from a thoroughly reported Spin article about the site, and reflect on what it says about the de-fanged state of modern criticism.
You can stream the episode below, and as always, let us know what you think. You can weigh in on our Facebook page and subscribe to The Disclaimer on iTunes.
