The cable news network MSNBC is eliminating the NBC from its name as it part ways with NBC News. As part of Versant's impending split from Comcast's NBCUniversal, MSNBC will alter its name and remove the iconic peacock image from its branding later this year.
The station will change its name to MS NOW, which stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World.
The developments comes months after Versant Chief Executive Officer Mark Lazarus informed a group of MSNBC employees in January that the network would not be changing its name. However, NBCUniversal executives opted to rename MSNBC “to accelerate the distinction between the MSNBC and NBC News organizations” during the last several months of transition planning, according to Lazarus' memo on Monday, as per CNBC.
MSNBC President sends internal memo to staff
In an email to the staff, MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler asserted that the news group's focus would not shift.
“While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not. Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades,” she wrote, CNN reported.
“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,” Kutler added.
{{/usCountry}}“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,” Kutler added.
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All about MSNBC's aggressive hiring
MSNBC has been actively hiring for roughly 100 new roles in an effort to establish a newsroom apart from NBC News. The network has already established its first-ever bureau in Washington, D.C., employing around 40 journalists from CNN, Bloomberg, Politico, and other news outlets.
“During this time of transition, NBCUniversal decided that our brand requires a new, separate identity,” the MSNBC President said. “This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering operation.”
Versant intends to spin off as a publicly traded business by the end of the year, when they will change the name and introduce the new logos.
In 1996, MSNBC was first introduced as a collaboration between NBC and Microsoft (the MS part). The name remained the same when Microsoft lost its interest in the business.