MS NOW: Dem version of Fox News is getting a name change (community divide)

[C C]

MSNBC is getting a new name as part of its split from NBC News
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/18/media...sant-split

EXCERPTS: As the cable news channel MSNBC splits up with NBC News, it is also dropping the NBC from its name. Later this year, the channel will become MS NOW, which stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World.

“This new branding underscores our mission: to serve as a destination for breaking news and best-in-class opinion journalism, all rooted in accurate and reported facts,” MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler said in an internal memo.

MSNBC was originally launched in 1996 as a partnership between Microsoft (The MS part) and NBC. When Microsoft sold its stake in the venture, the name stayed the same.

But MSNBC is going through a much bigger change this year as corporate parent Comcast spins off most of its cable channels into a new company called Versant. The split is set to take effect later this year.

[...] Renaming MSNBC will go a long way toward resolving the brand confusion that has roiled MSNBC and NBC News for decades.

The cable channel has long relied on NBC News correspondents and infrastructure for news coverage. But as the channel’s top-rated shows moved to the left in the Bush and Obama years, and NBC News stayed in the proverbial middle, the cross-pollination caused internal headaches and some suggestions about a name change.

During the Trump years, the differences between the two entities have been even more pronounced; MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently said “we have a consolidating dictatorship in our country,” which is certainly not how NBC News anchors describe the Trump administration.

Comcast’s cable channel spinoff has been seen by both sides as an opportunity to clarify the two different news brands... (MORE - details)

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Why MSNBC’s name change to “MS NOW” is a cynical exercise in branding that won't work

After Party with Emily Jashinsky
https://youtu.be/-MsOIHeNaQE

VIDEO EXCERPTS: They want you to believe that they are an insurgent and independent network. This is the most cynical exercise in branding that I can remember. So it gets one thing right, and one thing deeply wrong.

What it gets right is diagnosing the media landscape. And of course, it's very late for MSNBC to recognize this, because these trend lines were apparent 10 years ago. And there were some people who were way ahead of the curve and have come out on top of this.

[...] MSNBC now realizes things have splintered. The landscape is a bunch of independent creators competing seriously on the same playing field, a leveled playing field with the old guys.

So, they need to cut overhead, cut costs, rebrand. And what do they then want to do?

Well, they've realized that authenticity is what people prize in an era of low institutional trust. They prize a voice that they feel like they can trust, but they don't need to agree with 100% of the time. Doing their best to present a a fair and honest set of facts or opinions that they can then compare with other sources.

We're all just putting in more leg work now to consume the news, because we're comparing different sources, instead of saying I'm putting my trust in Walter Cronkite or Peter Jennings or whomever.

MSNBC is just now realizing this in 2025, but what they're doing wrong is not actually having any intention of meeting the demand. They know that they are going to have a niche audience, and that's it...

Why MSNBC’s name change to “MS NOW” is a cynical exercise in branding that won't work

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-MsOIHeNaQE

[Syne]

MS NOW - Most Surely No One Watches.