MSNBC has set a date for its new title.
Beginning Nov. 15, the progressive-leaning cable information channel will probably be known as MS NOW — an acronym for My Supply, Information, Opinion and World. The well-known NBC peacock will now not be a part of the channel’s emblem.
Viewers began seeing spots selling the brand new moniker on Monday, with the tagline “Identical mission, New title.” A bigger advertising and marketing push will occur within the coming weeks in accordance with a memo from MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler that was obtained by The Instances.
The rebranding coincides with guardian firm Comcast’s spinoff of its NBCUniversal cable channels into Versant, a brand new firm. CNBC, USA Community, Golf Channel, Oxygen, SyFy and E! are additionally a part of the entity.
Comcast is unloading the channels as a result of it believes the mature retailers face a bleak future as a result of pay TV cord-cutting and are an albatross weighing down its inventory worth. Comcast Chief Govt Brian Roberts will personal 33% of the shares in Versant, which is able to commerce as a public firm below the image VSNT on the NASDAQ.
MSNBC will quickly be known as MS NOW.
(AP)
Whereas the spinoff has been within the works for months, MSNBC viewers have heard little about it on the air till now. The community held a fan competition on the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York earlier this month and the entire signage used the MSNBC emblem. The title change was referred to a number of instances by the personalities who appeared on stage.
The change required MSNBC to unwind its information operation from NBC Information, which provided correspondents to the channel. Plenty of NBC Information correspondents, together with Jacob Soboroff and Ken Dilanian, selected to work for Versant.
The present line-up of MSNBC opinion hosts — together with Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Lawrence O’Donnell — will all make the transition to MS NOW.
Though MSNBC workers had been initially advised the community’s title could be retained, NBCUniversal determined it didn’t need its model hooked up to a community it didn’t management.
NBC Information correspondent Jacob Soboroff reporting on the wildfire that destroyed his boyhood dwelling.
(NBC Information)
Versant Chief Govt Mark Lazarus inspired his workers to embrace the change despite the challenges of promoting a brand new model in a extremely fragmented media panorama.
“This provides us the chance to chart our personal path ahead, create distinct model identities, and set up an impartial information group following the spin,” Lazarus wrote in an August memo.
MSNBC has its personal Washington bureau, which has already damaged quite a few tales in current weeks, together with the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and former nationwide safety advisor John Bolton.
MSNBC additionally has a multiyear settlement with U.Okay.-based Sky Information to supply worldwide protection.
