On the surface, it looked like another cost-cutting measure by a media company in the face of a prolonged recession -- MTV Networks' Music Group and Logo division on Tuesday trimmed 50-something jobs. [...] at ratings-challenged MTV, which took the brunt of the layoffs, what may have appeared to be a budget cut was in fact a long-in-the works programming restructuring that created new development teams reporting directly to MTV president of programming Tony DiSanto. Under the new structure, MTV will assemble a boutique comedy team based in New York to be led by senior vp Brent Haynes.

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