MSNBC to change its name to MS NOW and drop the peacock logo

MSNBC is changing its sanction to MS NOW and dropping its peacock logo arsenic portion of the cablegram channel's spinoff from Comcast's NBC Universal. 

The caller sanction stands for My Source News Opinion World, according to the company. MSNBC and respective different cablegram channels owned by NBC Universal are spinning disconnected into a caller concern called Versant, which volition besides see fiscal quality transmission CNBC and amusement networks specified arsenic USA, Oxygen, E! and SYFY. 

Comcast, the proprietor of NBC Universal, announced the spinoff successful November amid struggling ratings for the cablegram manufacture arsenic a whole. MSNBC's sanction alteration comes aft the web was founded astir 30 years agone done a concern betwixt Microsoft and NBC, with the shorthand for the tech elephantine — MS — and NBC's marque forming the channel's name. 

Changing its sanction to MS NOW "underscores the brand's ngo to service arsenic the destination for home and planetary breaking quality and the best-in-class sentiment journalism," Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said successful an interior memo. 

He added, "Most importantly, portion the sanction volition beryllium different, the brand's committedness to its assemblage volition not change."

NBC's peacock logo volition besides beryllium dropped from networks that volition beryllium portion of Versant, including CNBC, which volition clasp its name, the institution said. 

To beryllium sure, sanction changes ever transportation an inherent risk, and MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said that for employees, it is hard to ideate the web nether a antithetic name. "This was not a determination that was made rapidly oregon without important debate," she said successful a memo to staff.

"During this clip of transition, NBC Universal decided that our marque requires a new, abstracted identity," she wrote. "This determination present allows america to acceptable our ain people and asseverate our indepedence arsenic we proceed to physique our ain modern newsgathering organization."

In mentation for the spinoff, MSNBC has hired much than three-dozen journalists from outlets including Bloomberg, Politico, the Washington Post and CNN, the institution said. Some NBC News personalities, similar Jacob Soboroff, Vaughn Hillyard, Brandy Zadrozny and Antonia Hylton, person besides joined MSNBC.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• NBC