MSNBC Rebrand to ‘MS NOW’ Draws Derision, Confusion
Left-wing cable network MSNBC is getting a new name, MS NOW, and a new logo that drops the peacock symbolism. The rebranding announcement left some scratching their heads and while it triggered snarky sniping from others.
“Later this year, MSNBC will take on a new name: My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW),” the cable net said in “A message to our community” posted Monday. “This name further underscores our mission: to serve as your destination for breaking news and thoughtful analysis and remain the home for the perspectives that you’ve relied on for nearly 30 years.” MSNBC is being forced to change its name because it’s splitting off from NBCUniversal into the newly formed company called Versant, and NBCU has decided that it doesn’t want MSNBC to retain the “NBC” name or peacock branding.
After news of the rebranding broke Monday, some people were confused because the new name retains the “MS” of MSNBC — originally a reference to Microsoft, which hasn’t been involved with it in more than 13 years. MSNBC originally debuted in 1996 as a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft; the software giant divested its interest in the MSNBC TV network in 2005 and sold its 50% stake in the digital news operation to NBC in 2012. “MS NOW sounds like a short-lived Windows operating system from the early 2000s that needlessly redesigned too much and failed to be adopted by a critical mass of users,” Semafor’s Josh Billinson commented.
Social media users also immediately noticed the new name’s unfortunate association with the disease multiple sclerosis. “Sounds like a medical issue,” one user on X said about MS NOW. Self-described “political junkie” Russell Drew took issue with the MS Now logo, which he said “looks like it belongs on a discount computer from 1998, not a serious news network. Absurd.”
The “MS NOW” name also led some people read it as “Ms. Now.” And that continues “the problem they’ve faced since inception (that the ‘MS’ was an indicator that this was a network designed for women viewers ),” former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann wrote in an email — an issue that “has now been doubled (‘NOW? Like the National Organization For Women?’).” Olbermann, who was let go by MSNBC in 2011, claimed he had told the network to change its name “when I got there in 1997… I’m glad to see that my interoffice mail envelope finally got to the 52nd floor of 30 Rock.”
Others inevitably compared the MSNBC-MS NOW name swap to Warner Bros. Discovery’s switch from HBO Max to Max and then back to HBO Max. “After MS Now will be MS Go, and then MS Max, and then just MS,” quipped Washington Post media reporter Scott Nover.
The popular LizaMinnelliOutlives account on X duly noted that Minnelli, 79, has outlived the MSNBC name.
Meanwhile, it isn’t clear what MS NOW’s web destination will be at this point. The current website at “msnow.com” includes the text “Motorized Snow vehicles (SnowMobile)” and says in Korean: “A snowmobile is a vehicle that travels on snow. Equipped with skis and tracked wheels, it is used for winter recreation and transportation. Also known as a motor sled or snow machine. In Korea, it is used for maintenance, rescue operations, and cargo transport at ski resorts and other locations.”
If you type “ms-now.com” into your browser, you are redirected to meal-delivery service Marley Spoon, which is affiliated with Martha Stewart.
Also unknown as yet is what disparaging nickname President Donald Trump might craft for the new MS NOW. His favorite epithet for MSNBC has been “MSDNC,” alleging it serves as an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
