MSNBC is becoming MS NOW: My Source for News, Opinion, and the World
The progressive cable news network MSNBC will formally change its name later this year to MS NOW, standing for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World.
The change is part of a corporate transformation as the network breaks off from other parts of the NBCUniversal family, including a split with its longtime sibling NBC News. MSNBC will be part of a group of networks – including Oxygen, the Golf Channel and others – called Versant.
The decision is a significant one. Since 1996, the name MSNBC has been strongly associated with left-leaning commentary on television. It’s also an about-face: Earlier this year, the executive in charge of Versant, Mark Lazarus, said the name would not change, comforting employees who been had been concerned about the possibility of a switch.
In a memo Monday, Lazarus said the decision was made to further emphasize the distinction between MSNBC and NBC News, which will retain the network’s signature peacock logo.
“This new name underscores the brand’s mission to serve as the destination for domestic and international breaking news and the best-in-class opinion journalism,” he wrote in the memo. Because MSNBC long relied on NBC News for reporting resources and journalists, the network has been building out its own team of political journalists, including a large bureau in Washington led by cable news veteran Scott Matthews.
“While the name will be different, the brand’s commitment to its audience will not change,” Lazarus told employees. He also said CNBC, the financial news network that is also splitting off, will retain its name.
Rebecca Kutler, the president of MSNBC, acknowledged in her own memo that many employees would likely be rattled by the change. “I know this announcement will be met with questions, and I want to acknowledge that for many of you who have spent years or decades here, it is hard to imagine the network by any other name,” she wrote. “This was not a decision that was made quickly or without significant debate.”
Kutler said the decision was made by the network’s longtime parent company, NBCUniversal, which she said “now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering operation.”
MSNBC was launched in 1996. The “M” in the name comes from a much earlier partnership with Microsoft.
The name change will go into effect before the end of 2025. The company said it would undertake a significant marketing campaign this year to promote the new name.
Rachel Maddow, the network’s biggest star, recently expressed support for the spin-off, saying in a podcast with tech journalist Kara Swisher it would allow employees to “apply our own instincts, our own queries, our own priorities, to getting stuff that we need from reporters and correspondents.”