MSNBC to MS NOW: What's behind the network's branding makeover?
Saturday will mark the end of an era for MSNBC as the liberal cable network moves forward under new ownership and a new name: MS NOW.
The media shakeup was nearly a year in the making after Comcast announced it would spin off its cable networks into its own company called Versant, separating MSNBC from its sister broadcast network NBC, which will remain under the NBCUniversal umbrella.
The looming split led to many burning questions about MSNBC's future, including how it would operate without NBC News' resources, who gets what in the corporate divorce, and whether MSNBC could even keep its name.
MSNBC'S 'RISKY' REBRAND TO MS NOW DRAWS SKEPTICISM FROM BRANDING EXPERTS
Here is what to know ahead of MS NOW's launch:
In an effort to distance itself from NBC as part of the corporate separation, MSNBC is changing its name to MS NOW, an acronym for "My Source for News, Opinion, and the World."
When MSNBC first launched in 1996, "MS" originally stood for Microsoft, NBC's former partner in launching the network, although the company divested decades ago.
Notably, CNBC, MSNBC's sister network that Comcast is also spinning off into Versant, will keep its name as it has always stood for Consumer News and Business Channel.
The New York Times reported MSNBC employed a $20 million ad campaign this month to sell viewers on the change, including an ad where Rachel Maddow reads the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Another series of spots featured MSNBC hosts promising, "Same mission, new name."
The name change sparked mixed reactions from inside the network.
Maddow told The New York Times she was initially "annoyed" by the name change but is now "kind of happy about it."
Maddow called it "a hook to reintroduce ourselves to people, to reintroduce ourselves to the country, and remind our viewers what it is they like about us."
One staffer previously told Fox News Digital, "I don't get it" and swiped that the new name wasn't meaningful. A second MSNBC insider said it was good for the new network to have similar initials for the sake of familiarity with loyal viewers, but that MS NOW was far from perfect. A third liked the name change.
Over the past year, a corporate custody battle unfolded between MSNBC and NBC News.
Everyone on MSNBC's current lineup will remain on the network through its MS NOW transformation, including Maddow, Jen Psaki, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Katy Tur, Stephanie Ruhle, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
However, NBC retained Steve Kornacki, the Peacock network's data and polling expert who had become a fixture on MSNBC's election night coverage. Andrea Mitchell, who ended her long-running MSNBC program "Andrea Mitchell Reports" in February, will remain with NBC as its chief Washington and foreign affairs correspondent. José Díaz-Balart departed MSNBC earlier this year and will continue anchoring "NBC Nightly News Saturday," as well as Noticias Telemundo.
LIBERAL MEDIA SPLIT: WHO GETS WHAT IN THE MESSY NBC-MSNBC DIVORCE?
NBC reporters who will be part of MS NOW include justice beat reporters Ken Dilanian and Ryan Reilly, national correspondent Jacob Soboroff, White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard and internet reporter Brandy Zadrozny. A slew of other staffers will also make the leap from NBC to MS NOW, like Meghan Rafferty, the former executive producer of "NBC Nightly News" who will serve as MS NOW's vice president of news standards.
Willie Geist, who currently hosts "Sunday TODAY" for NBC and co-hosts "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, landed a rare deal where he is able to maintain both roles at each network after the separation.
And as part of the divorce, NBC gets to keep the house, meaning MSNBC has packed up its boxes and left Rockefeller Center in New York City and vacated NBC's Washington, D.C., bureau near the U.S. Capitol. MSNBC has also had to build a news-gathering division from scratch, involving a huge hiring spree to fill its newsroom.
The name may change, but the progressive-leaning network will otherwise remain the same, according to statements made by leadership, including Versant CEO Mark Lazarus and MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler.
"While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not," Kutler wrote. "Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades."
"The direction of the network is not changing. Full stop," a network spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital.