During my career, I have had experience in product branding and corporate naming. Working in advertising and what I called "new business engineering," I consulted on the process, facilitated client sessions to brainstorm possibilities, and made recommendations.
Now, I watched my favorite television channel, MSNBC, become MS Now and wondered why. I used Google AI to get some answers.
Results:
"The MS Now rebranding happened because MSNBC, its parent company Versant, and other cable news networks were spun off from NBCUniversal. The name change was also a result of NBCUniversal retaining ownership of the "NBC" name and the peacock logo, forcing the new company to establish an independent brand. This split allowed MS Now to chart its own path, build its own news-gathering operation, and operate as an independent entity.
Corporate spin-off: The rebrand occurred as part of a larger corporate split where Comcast spun off its cable networks, including MSNBC, into a new company called Versant.
Brand independence: NBCUniversal kept the rights to its name and iconic peacock logo, which necessitated a new name for the independent company.
New identity: The name change also served as an opportunity for the network to establish a distinct identity, build a new news-gathering operation from scratch, and create its own path forward without the financial and editorial support of its former parent company.
Core mission remains: Despite the change in name and branding, the network stated its core mission of providing liberal opinion and news analysis will not change, notes The Independent and the Los Angeles Times." Google AI Overview
Why am I rattled? First of all, I enjoyed the notion that Microsoft and Bill Gates might have had something to do with my favorite channel. I know Gates is a Republican, although I have followed him from my days as publisher of Infosystems Magazine, a former property of The American Broadcasting Companies, when I was there as VP at the Hitchcock Publishing Division. I last reported on Gates when he visited the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington when I was the National Politics Examiner for Clarity Media.
The big boy former Bell companies got their hands in the mix, i.e., Comcast, and then spun off as Versant. Next came the corrupted version of the former National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the former Universal Studios. The Peacock got run over along the way, probably on the 405 expressway in Los Angeles. I don't know.
Anyway, they could have called it "Joe's and Mika's Liberal Friends," except they are getting too old for that. The new folks are bright, fresh, and ethnically diversified, appealing to the younger audience, one might hope. It makes an old feller like me feel good that there is hope on the horizon.
Still, what rattles me is knowing that making such a change is deeper than superficial branding, and it takes a lot of money to make it work.
I was fact-checked by Maureen!
"AI says, “MS NOW stands for "My Source for News, Opinion, and the World," according to its parent company, Versant. “ Maureen Radcliffe George.
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