MSNBC Leaves Comcast, Gets New Name and Logo
I’m not much of a cable news watcher but I loves me some new logos.
So Comcast is selling off MSNBC (which was a cable news venture NBC News kicked off decades ago with Microsoft – hence the MS) that has always pretty much been an also ran news network to CNN and certainly Fox News — which has been / is a ratings juggernaut in that particular space.
With the new owners must come a new name because the cable news network does not get to keep the Peacock after the sale.
So let’s see what they’ve done.
From a name perspective, they are changing it to MS NOW (with a space, as opposed to MSNBC, no space).
The MS is now supposed to stand for “My Source”. The NOW is supposed to stand for “News, Opinion, World”.
In other words “My Source (for) News, Opinion (and the) World”. Um…ok.
They can try as hard as they want to promote the brand meaning with all those words – I don’t think it will go especially well, no one will care.
But overall, the NAME change from MSNBC to MS NOW I think is pretty good. The new name plays well off the old, established name…news consumers and I think a good chunk of the American public have some understanding of what MSNBC is…so calling the new channel MS NOW could actually transition well.
I grade A- on the name change (regardless of the supposed meaning), with a lesser grade due to the loss of the iconic peacock.
On to the MS NOW icon. What the hell is it?
A flag? A quasi-American flag? Did somebody in the graphics department start playing with the shape tool in PowerPoint??
You had all this time and THIS was your best effort?
It’s bad. It lacks creativity. It lacks…everything.
I grade it an F as in what the F.
As I recall, the MSNBC people used to change their logo once every other year or so. I’m guessing in another 12 months, someone will get around to hiring a professional designer to give that logo some polish…or actually, to give that network an actual darn logo.
I completely agree!
The ’90s are calling and want their logo back.
As you said, it lacks creativity, and it’s just ….blah.
?
Yup. I think because it’s a visual medium, I expect ALOT more from TV logos. Here’s was this fresh canvas and the designers just basically stuck their foot through it.
Oh well. 🙂