M.S.N.O.W.
Brian Steinberg
Oh boy.
MSNBC will have to take a new name in months to come as it seeks to carve out an identity that will have it competing for scoops and news with current corporate sibling NBC News. MSNBC will soon come to be known as My Source for News Opinion and the World, or MS NOW, following the spin off of the bulk of NBCUniversal’s cable assets into a new publicly traded company called Versant. The changes were detailed in a memo to staffers Monday by Mark Lazarus, who will run Versant as its founding CEO.
"My Source for News Opinion and the World" is just an amazingly awful acronym of gibberish. Truly impressive work. And it was so obviously backed-into, because they wanted to keep some semblance of the old name, but couldn't keep the 'NBC' part...
MSNBC had planned to keep its name, but NBCU recently decided to retain its famous Peacock design and markings and not share them, requiring Versant to make changes to some of its networks that use those insignia and the NBC logo, Lazarus said. “As we all know, the peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” he said. “This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin.”
That's a tough spot to be in – peacockblocked! – as it is with the other properties now a part of Versant – the equally awfully named spin-off from NBCUniversal. But opting to keep 'MS' which stems from the decades-ago partnership forged between um, Microsoft, and NBC seems, well, a bit odd. Since not only is Microsoft not involved, but they haven't been involved with the channel for – checks notes – twenty years.1
It was so long ago that you almost have to wonder if Microsoft isn't a bit annoyed that they're still using that element of the name! I mean, I, for one, cannot look at 'MS NOW' and see anything other than 'MS DOS'.2 But maybe that's just me – someone who is old enough to have had a computer that booted MS DOS. And while Microsoft doesn't really promote the 'MS' abbreviation anymore, it's still a part of a lot of their software!
Oh, but not to worry, because 'MS' no longer stands for Microsoft, it stands for... 'My Source'. Look, I don't hate it as much as I should. It's more than a bit weird to have 'My' when the common possessive adjective used in such situations would be 'Your' (i.e. "your source for trusted news"), but whatever. My main gripe there is that if they were going to go down this path, they should have simply gone with 'My Source Now' – why did the totally new and very common "now" have to be made into an acronym as well?!
And if you really need to do that, maybe pick three words that fully flow together, not two that do – news & opinion – and one that seems tacked on: world. This is basically Jim's Dwight Schrute "Bears, Beet, Battlestar Galactica" bit from The Office. Yes, there's also a bit of "Wear Hear for You" in here...
Also, wait, hold on a minute. I'm sorry. I was so preoccupied with the actual name that I just now looked again at the logo. What's that little flag thing?! Is that the Austrian flag?! What on Earth? (Because we apparently now know where on Earth!)3 Worse, it looks to be an Austrian flag tucked inside a white flag. White flags are not typically a signal you want to send as a media organization these days.
At least I think that's a flag. One billowing in the wind? I guess it could be a bookmark? A bookmark with an Austrian flag for some reason?
Corporate types might take comfort in the fact that MS NOW is probably easier to say and recall than MSNBC, Maddow suggested. “While I will admit to having no idea how to pronounce “MS NOW” (and I’m still not all that sure about pronouncing “Versant,” either), we’re at least dropping our syllable count from five to three!” she said. “An efficiency gain!”
Wait, now that they say that, I can't help be immediately be drawn to call it "Ms. Now". Maybe that could work for an influencer – sorry, only unmarried or empowered women using their maiden names may apply. Or I guess "Mississippi Now" – there are sort of elements of that state flag. Well, the old one. You know, the one with the Confederate flag also baked in? Apocalypse Now.
They clearly want it to be "M.S. Now" but given that 'MS' is an abbreviation and 'NOW' is also an abbreviation, why wouldn't it be 'N.O.W.'? Also, MSNBC was, in fact, 'M.S.N.B.C' – if they want the space to stop the letter pronouncing, 'NOW' should be 'Now'. Which is to say, not an acronym. So, I'm going to go with 'M.S.N.O.W'.
Back to five syllables, Ms. Maddow!
1 Though yes, they remained technically involved in the MSNBC.com website for another seven years after that.
2 The ALL CAPS element of the name doesn't help either...
3 Here's where I'll admit that I'm perhaps a bit predisposed to see an Austrian flag at the moment having just gotten back from two weeks traveling in the (beautiful) country. But still. IT'S THE AUSTRIAN FLAG. 🇦🇹