The model emblem for My Source News Opinion World
Courtesy of Versant
MSNBC will change its identify later this yr and drop the storied peacock picture from its branding — the primary actual public-facing adjustments in Versant’s upcoming separation from Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
The political information community can be renamed My Source News Opinion World, or MS Now, Versant Chief Executive Officer Mark Lazarus wrote in an inner memo to staff that was seen by CNBC.
In January, Lazarus informed a gaggle of MSNBC staffers that the community wouldn’t change its name. But through the previous few months of transition planning, NBCUniversal leaders determined MSNBC ought to tackle a brand new identify “to accelerate the distinction between the MSNBC and NBC News organizations,” Lazarus wrote within the memo Monday.
MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler added in her personal be aware to staff that the information group’s focus will not change.
“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.
MSNBC has been present process aggressive hiring for about 100 new positions to arise its personal newsroom unbiased from NBC News. The community has already employed about 40 journalists from NCS, Bloomberg, Politico and different information organizations to set up its first-ever Washington, D.C., bureau.
“During this time of transition, NBCUniversal decided that our brand requires a new, separate identity,” Kutler wrote. “This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering operation.”
While MSNBC and NBC News could have duplications in protection, equivalent to masking politics, CNBC’s information group is already separate sufficient from NBC News that executives determined it did not want a reputation change, in accordance to individuals acquainted with the matter. Also, technically, the “NBC” in “CNBC” by no means stemmed from National Broadcasting Company. Rather, CNBC stands for “Consumer News and Business Channel.”
Still, CNBC will likewise be getting a brand new emblem with out the famed NBCUniversal peacock. This can be true for all of Versant’s manufacturers which have a peacock within the emblem. Sports content material on the USA community and Golf Channel can be branded collectively underneath USA Sports. Digital corporations GolfNow and SportsEngine can even change their logos.
The MSNBC identify change and the brand new logos will all be launched earlier than the tip of the yr, when Versant plans to spin out as a publicly traded firm.
MSNBC will quickly kick off a nationwide advertising and marketing marketing campaign to accompany the launch of the brand new identify, “unlike anything we have done in recent memory,” Kutler famous in her memo Monday.
MSNBC is the second-most watched cable information community, averaging 1.2 million primetime viewers year-to-date. The community has 28 on-air anchors, 21 correspondents and reporters, and offers from than 120 hours of stay programming every week.
Disclosure: Comcast is the father or mother firm of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would grow to be the brand new father or mother firm of CNBC underneath the proposed spinoff.