Exclusive / The old MSNBC relaunches into a new media world

The move was a startling acknowledgement of a reality that has swallowed a television news business that once sat atop America’s media hierarchy.

Whether new CEO Mark Lazarus will admit it, MS NOW is Versant’s defining brand, one of the last remaining ratings draws in cable news at a moment when Americans are rapidly ditching their cable subscriptions for streaming.

But what was once the left-leaning, 24-hour counterpart to NBC News, is now very much on its own, divorced from the broadcast apparatus that had powered its journalism and kicked out of a building that it had shared with some of the biggest stars in network television.

The commercial question is whether Versant can use its linear distribution and strong balance sheet to give channels like MS NOW an edge over Morgan and other fully independent competitors — or whether those apparent advantages amount merely to baggage.

MS NOW executives and talent earnestly make the case that the spinoff will help immediately. MS profits have been invested in other parts of the business, like the money-losing streaming service Peacock, they said, instead of helping to invest in competing for digital eyeballs. MSNBC never invested heavily in digital, a decision that set the network back while other digital media businesses emerged.

The test for MS NOW will be whether Versant will follow through on its promise to reinvest the company’s cable news profits back into it; whether it decides to spend it acquiring other, more promising outlets; or whether simply puts the profits towards compensating the company’s shareholders while it gradually manages a declining business downward.

The spirit and talking points are now focused on growth. The company has pointed to a number of new editorial pushes it has put forward since the split was announced. Most notably, the company launched a newsroom, hiring dozens of largely politically-focused journalists. That move quickly yielded a number of high-profile scoops and exclusives, giving existing staff a boost of morale and signaling that the company will be a news heavyweight going into the midterm and presidential elections. It was also a financial decision that reflects a new independence from the old parent company: MSNBC network chief Rebecca Kutler believed it would be less costly to hire a team of journalists than license NBC News content.

“It’s always great to be able to launch something, especially in a time this industry is in right now. It’s a very different current as opposed to what the rest of the industry is going through,” Scott Matthews, MS NOW’s senior vice president of newsgathering, said in an interview. “We’re growing at a moment where everyone else is trying to figure out their business model.”

MS NOW has also leaned on its existing talent for new work. It launched a daily afternoon newsletter, The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe. It launched a series of new podcasts, like one hosted by former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace and another hosted by former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and relaunched some old content on YouTube, including a weekly series hosted by former on-air cohosts Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle.

Madeleine Haeringer, head of digital and longform content, said the company planned on launching more original limited audio series as well as an explainer series, and would pursue more investment in YouTube shorts and “simulcasting coverage” on the video platform.

The company also wants to begin making money in other ways. Following the launch of the network’s flagship annual event in New York, the new senior vice president of content strategy, Marcus Mabry, said it plans on launching a series of live events across the country that would bring together MS fans. He also told Semafor audiences can expect some paid subscription offerings like newsletters.

“For us it’s really about community,” he said, noting that the network planned to “think about the needs of progressives in this time and space” and provide ways to meet those needs.

Many of the moves MS executives are willing to discuss on the record are being replicated across the media industry. Much of the true wheeling and dealing, if there’s any to be had, will happen after the company goes public in January. Day-to-day concerns at the network at the moment have focused largely on the rebrand and nailing the technical elements of the broadcast in a series of new studio spaces.

Still, there are some hints that MS has begun to explore smaller-scale moves over the last several months.

The company has discussed an expanded role for Pablo Torre, the investigative sports journalist, who regularly appears on the network to discuss the biggest stories in sports, particularly when they bleed over into politics, business, and culture.

The network has also discussed collaborations with Crooked Media, the digital media company behind Pod Save America — though much like its talks with ascendant never-Trump media company The Bulwark, the discussions have been more friendly and exploratory than serious, Semafor is told. Haeringer, who now runs MS NOW’s digital strategy, formerly was the general manager of content at Crooked.

In many ways, this transition is happening at an ideal moment for MS NOW.

Had Vice President Kamala Harris prevailed, the network would likely be scrambling to make a transition after its viewership had tuned out, as it had during much of the Biden administration. Left-leaning oppositional media has benefited from the Democratic Party’s soul-searching in the wake of its second loss to Trump in three presidential elections, driving subscribers to anti-Trump news outlets on Substack and, more recently, boosting the ratings of MS NOW’s off-year election coverage.

The network has a few other tailwinds helping it: Unlike CNN, which has struggled to recoup its viewers since jettisoning former CEO Jeff Zucker and his anti-Trump programming slant, the network’s leadership seems content with serving its audience what it wants. Early into his tenure, Lazarus has at points privately made comments to some in the building suggesting that he personally would like the network to take a less politically strident approach than in the past. After former contributor Matthew Dowd suggested in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assasination that his rhetoric was partially responsible for heightened political violence, Versant swiftly fired him, a move that was condemned by some liberals.

But the Versant boss is said to realize that MS NOW’s audience — and some of the network’s most notable on-air talent — remain deeply alarmed by Trump (and, in some cases, the Democratic establishment) and committed to a liberal-to-progressive agenda.

“We have core values for this new organization and we think the actions we took were us committing to those and making public our commitment to those core values,” Lazarus told Semafor in an interview earlier this year. “We’re not going to change who our brand is.”

Meanwhile, some on-air personalities relish the freedom from the staid NBC corporate brand.

“We’re not walking on eggshells at a moment our viewers don’t want us to walk on eggshells,” one on-air personality told Semafor.

It also doesn’t seem like many of its marquee stars are headed anywhere, at least for the time being. Rachel Maddow renewed her contract with the network last year, to appear one night a week as well as during most major political news events and to keep doing her podcast.

While there has been some speculation about the Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s future at the network, the expansion of the Joe franchise and their increased presence in the office suggests to keen network observers that they are likely to remain fixtures at the channel in the coming years. Morning Joe remains a central pillar of the political media universe. During a meeting with reporters the day after November’s off-year elections, Scarborough said he was trying to broker peace talks between New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt and Rev. Al Sharpton.

But the reality is that streaming has leveled the playing field for MS NOW’s competitors. The network is no longer one of the few media organs that can reach large audiences; the same politicians who appear on MS NOW’s airwaves are regulars on the podcast circuit and can reach millions of viewers and listeners in ideologically similar venues like MeidasTouch, The Bulwark, and Crooked Media. The reinvestment in the network also hasn’t resulted in bigger paychecks for on-air stars, according to people familiar with recent contract talks between hosts and the network.

If MS NOW wants to survive, it will need to locate its advantage in the YouTube-centric digital world, whether that’s in ad sales or distribution, and take risks in order to find new talent. As of today, the network’s steps have largely seemed like minor extensions of its TV product, rather than the big swings needed to outflank its new rivals in digital, who command similar reach but can act nimbly — and don’t need to run a 24-hour cable broadcast on the side.

The new offices themselves are a stark reminder to MS employees that they are in the pool with the rest of the content-creating world.

The company has relocated to 229 W 43rd St. Those new digs are fancy by modern media standards but modest compared to Rockefeller Center, where stars from Saturday Night Live and celebrities appearing on the Today show could sometimes be found wandering the halls. Among MS NOW staff, the mood has alternated from what one employee described as “cautiously optimistic” to what another described as “low-level nervousness.” But it has been “tough on the lifers,” another MS insider said, noting that many staff who had been there longest felt the jolt of a new workplace and the loss of the prestige and habit of the old offices.

It similarly hasn’t been lost on MS NOW staff that the new office they moved into wasn’t just the former home of The New York Times, a company that has successfully navigated its transformation from major regional newspaper to digital media behemoth. It was also formerly occupied by BuzzFeed, a once powerful left-leaning media brand that has become just another content machine vying for attention.