MSNBC has set a date for its new name.
Starting November 15, the progressive cable news channel will be called MS NOW, an acronym for My Source, News, Opinion and World. NBC's iconic peacock will no longer be part of the channel's logo.
On Monday, viewers began seeing videos promoting the new moniker, with the tagline “Same mission, new name.” According to a memo from the MSNBC president, a larger marketing push will occur in the coming weeks. Rebecca Cutler The Times reported this.
The rebranding coincides with parent company Comcast spinning off its NBCUniversal cable channels into a new company, Versant. CNBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, SyFy and E! are also part of the essence.
Comcast is offloading channels because it believes mature channels face a bleak future due to the pay-TV shutdown and are an albatross weighing down its stock price. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will own 33% of Versant, which will trade as a publicly traded company under the symbol VSNT on NASDAQ.
MSNBC will soon be called MS NOW.
(AP)
Although the spinoff has been in the works for several months, MSNBC viewers still haven't heard much about it on air. Earlier this month, the network held a fan festival at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, and all the signage used the MSNBC logo. The name change was mentioned several times by the personalities who took to the stage.
The change required MSNBC to divest its news operations from NBC News, which supplied correspondents to the channel. A number of NBC News correspondents, including Jacob Soboroff and Ken Dilanian decided to work for Versant.
MSNBC's current lineup of opinion anchors, including Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber, Rachel Maddow, Just Psaki and Lawrence O'Donnell will all move to MS NOW.
Although MSNBC employees were initially told that the network's name would be kept, NBCUniversal decided it did not want its brand to be tied to a network it did not control.
NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff talks about the wildfire that destroyed his childhood home.
(NBC News)
Versant CEO Mark Lazarus urged his employees to embrace the change despite the challenges of promoting a new brand in a highly fragmented media landscape.
“This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create a clear brand identity and build an independent news organization in the wake of the events,” Lazarus wrote in an August memo.
MSNBC has its own Washington bureau, which has already published a number of stories in recent weeks, including indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and former national security adviser John Bolton.
MSNBC also has a multi-year agreement with the UK's Sky News to provide international coverage.
