{"id":291946,"date":"2025-11-14T22:14:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291946\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:14:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:14:03","slug":"ms-now-president-rebecca-kutler-and-on-air-talent-on-building-a-more-modern-news-outlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/291946\/","title":{"rendered":"MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler And On-Air Talent On Building A “More Modern” News Outlet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe way MS NOW<\/a> execs and talent describe their operation suggests the soon-to-be-former MSNBC<\/a> is a skunkworks start-up emerging from stealth mode instead of a nearly 30-year-old cable news<\/a> mainstay.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s exciting about it is it\u2019s a different approach,\u201d prime-time host Jen Psaki said during a media briefing this month at the network\u2019s new Times Square studios. \u201cIt feels a bit more modern [compared] to what NBC has been doing, or what the bigger universe is doing, in terms of what we\u2019re expecting from reporters, what we\u2019re working with them on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe switch will officially be thrown Saturday to light up the MS NOW brand (short for My Source for News, Opinion and the World) and officially bid farewell to MSNBC. The move is a part of the spinoff of former NBCUniversal cable networks into a new stand-alone corporate entity called Versant<\/a>. With NBC News (along with sports, local stations, Telemundo and Bravo) remaining with the Comcast mother ship, the decision was made to cut longstanding ties between the cable outlet and NBC.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhether we are at 30 Rock or over here, or what our company name is, is not that relevant to me,\u201d Kutler said. \u201cWhat\u2019s relevant to me is, do we have the resources? Do we have the team? Do we have the platform to put out the smartest content? And are we now part of an organization that has the mobility to actually figure out, we know where our audience is on linear television?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKutler added that Versant CEO-in-waiting Mark Lazarus has created \u201can agile culture\u201d and \u201ca much flatter culture\u201d than the one at MSNBC. \u201cThe time from idea to decision is, like, 10% of what it has been in any previous role. \u2026 That is a huge advantage when speed is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA promotional campaign, reported to cost in the range of $20 million, has featured network talent like Rachel Maddow reading from the U.S. Constitution and emphasizing the tagline, \u201cSame Mission. New Name.\u201d As the longtime left-of-center player in the cable news wars, MSNBC has faced serious ratings challenges of late, trailing the category\u2019s dominant player, Fox News, by a wide margin but leading CNN. A mid-October Nielsen big data + panel report pegged MSNBC\u2019s average primetime audience at 822,000 total viewers, 63,000 of them aged 25 to 54.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe three-horse race of cable news, of course, is no longer the main yardstick. The company is investing in digital news, podcasts and talent-based newsletters. \u201cThe landscape\u2019s completely changed,\u201d Morning Joe host Scarborough said. \u201cYou know, \u2018Who\u2019s gonna win, who\u2019s gonna lose?\u2019 It all comes down to content.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKutler and the network talent said quality reporting would be her main objective. \u201cIt is just such a huge privilege in this moment to invest in journalism, and if I think about what the core tenets of MS NOW are going to be, one of them is going to be to be pro-journalism. which I think says everything about what our audience is looking for in this moment and says everything about what is necessary in a functioning democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven the separation from NBC, considerable thought has been given to things like weather (which will be supplied by a partnership with AccuWeather) as well as ensuring no story slips through the cracks. In cable news, stories break in remote places where NBC affiliates traditionally had been the go-to suppliers of footage and reporters on the ground.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about what will replace that, Kutler said the network has a \u201cbelts-and-suspenders\u201d setup with a portfolio of vendors and partners, including the Associated Press, Reuters, Sky and even a licensing deals with affiliates covering \u201cvirtually every U.S. market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe studios, built out in the building on West 43rd Street that once housed the New York Times, have a similar aesthetic to the ones at 30 Rock, but staffers describe a world of difference.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMorning Joe was an experiment, and we\u2019ve been experimenting ever since. We love trying new things. We love trying new shows, and new ideas,\u201d said the show\u2019s co-host, Mika Brzezinski. \u201cI think this is gonna be a place where that kind of thinking can flourish on high octane. When we were at 30 Rock and in the old setup with the old constraints and connections, there were a lot of notes happening. Like, \u2018You can\u2019t do this because \u2026\u2019 or, \u2018You can\u2019t do that because \u2026\u2019 or, \u2018This doesn\u2019t work this way because, and in this building \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrzezinski\u2019s co-host and husband, Joe Scarborough, suggested that the parting with NBC may not be forever. \u201cI really do hope down the road that we can have people on our show from the NBC universe. I think that will happen. I can\u2019t imagine, you know, never seeing Keir Simmons again or Richard Engel. But as we make this debut and this departure, we are looking for new ways to deliver more news to a more global audience. And I think this is a perfect opportunity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Steele, co-host of The Weekend, described the MS NOW launch process as \u201ca natural next progression\u201d in the MSNBC narrative. When he learned of the split and rebrand, he said, \u201cI didn\u2019t see this as a divorce. I saw this as a kid grows up and is now leaving home. You know, we all know what that\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen a reporter noted that in this case the \u201ckid\u201d is almost 30 years old, Steele smiled. \u201cThere are some 30-year-olds who finally realize it\u2019s time to leave, right? And mom and dad agree. And so for me, it wasn\u2019t in that sense a breakup, but an appropriate separation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeparating is the first step. MS NOW, and the overall Versant portfolio, will soon have to persuade Wall Street about the merits of linear TV. The spinoff from Comcast is expected to be completed in early 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tMS NOW host Stephanie Ruhle, who became a TV journalist after a career in investment banking, was asked why investors should buy into the Versant thesis. \u201cI spent my career in distressed debt,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no better place to make money than in distressed assets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way MS NOW execs and talent describe their operation suggests the soon-to-be-former MSNBC is a skunkworks start-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[57092,88,115837,35966,92,16352],"class_list":["post-291946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cable-news","tag-entertainment","tag-ms-now","tag-msnbc","tag-tv","tag-versant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}