‘The end of an era’: Journalist SuChin Pak says goodbye to MTV News
May 11, 2023
Journalist SuChin Pak took to social media to reminisce and bid farewell to the MTV News division, which is shutting down 36 years after its inception.
Pak, the 46-year-old Korean American news correspondent and podcaster, is best known for her covering music and pop culture over the years for MTV News.
Pak immigrated to California from South Korea with her family when she was only 5 years old. She was first introduced to media and entertainment when a program director asked her to host the teen-based magazine show “First Cut” on San Francisco TV station KRON. Later in her career, she was spotted by MTV, who then hired her as the network’s first Asian presenter.
In May 2001, Pak became a correspondent for the news division, which was launched in 1987, and has since been part of the team that produced a news outlet well-known to the Gen X and millennial audience. She has covered events such as the “MTV Movie and Music Awards” and interviewed countless celebrities, such as Mariah Carey, NSYNC and Jay-Z.
Rather than tuning into the evening newscasts, America’s then-youth viewers would anticipate the program’s news and topics that helped define pop culture. MTV News notably interrupted regular programming to break the news about Kurt Cobain’s death on April 8, 1994.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Pak recalled some of her best memories at MTV News from reporting to working with her colleagues.
“Good bye MTV News! This feels crazy to even think about. When I remember my time there, it’s little snapshots, moments, a feeling that has stayed with me for decades. I remember sitting in my office every day and hearing screaming kids downstairs…knowing ok, time for [Total Request Live],” Pak wrote.
Pak shared that her first news story was about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that her “most beloved” project was “My Life (Translated)” where her team documented young people straddling bi-cultural identities. She also expressed gratitude for being able to camp at the MTV Beach House every summer in the past.
I remember that it felt like a college campus, working with all of these young people in front of and behind the camera and we were the ones in charge. It goes without saying spending my 20s and 30s in this bubble changed my life forever. I know there are many of you with your own memories of Ten To The Hour and rushing home to turn on TRL … I’m right there with you … I can’t believe it’s the end of an era.
The division’s shut down comes as part of the layoffs at its parent company Paramount Global.
According to Chris McCarthy, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president, the company “made the very hard but necessary decision to reduce our domestic team by approximately 25 percent.”
The decision will reportedly “reduce costs and create a more effective approach” to the business moving forward.
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