Television network MSNBC announced it is changing its name to My Source News Opinion World, adopting the shorter moniker MS NOW.
The move comes as Comcast prepares to shift most of its NBCUniversal cable channels into a new company called Versant, which will not carry the NBC brand or its iconic Peacock logo.
"This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities and establish an independent news organization," Versant CEO Mark Lazarus wrote in a memo to employees, The New York Times reported.
Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC's president, acknowledged the weight of the change in her own note to staff.
"For many of you who have spent years or decades here, it is hard to imagine the network by any other name," she wrote, adding that the decision followed "significant debate."
She emphasized that the rebrand would not alter the network's editorial mission.
"While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not," she said, the Times reported.
The spinoff also affects sibling channels. CNBC will keep its initials — which stand for Consumer News and Business Channel — but will adopt a new logo once separated from NBCUniversal. Meanwhile, MSNBC has been bulking up its newsroom, hiring more than three dozen journalists to prepare for the split from NBC News' vast reporting operation.
MSNBC's name originally reflected its origins as a 1996 joint venture between Microsoft and NBC during the early boom of internet–television convergence. Though Microsoft left the partnership long ago, the name endured. With the coming shift, executives say MS NOW better highlights the network's role in delivering "breaking news and best-in-class opinion journalism."
The rebrand and corporate separation are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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