MSNBC Name Change Mercilessly Mocked as ‘One of the Worst Branding Disasters in Media History’

“MSNBC’s horrible rebrand is going to bring Americans together again,” one social media user jokes

MS Now Logo (Credit: Photo courtesy of Versant)
MS Now Logo (Credit: Photo courtesy of Versant)

Versant’s Monday announcement that MSNBC will be rebranded as MS NOW (My Source News Opinion World) has generated comparisons online to Warner Bros. Discovery’s multiple HBO name changes in recent years and has been met with widespread derision.

The rebrand comes as parent company Comcast plans to spin off its cable news channels into a new company called Versant. When that plan was originally announced, there were concerns that MSNBC’s separation from NBCUniversal would result in it losing its easily identifiable name.

Those concerns were temporarily dispelled when Versant’s prospective CEO Mark Lazarus told staffers in January that they did not have to worry about the network changing its name. Now, not only is MSNBC rebranding, but its name change also brings with it a new logo that does not feature the NBC Peacock logo that has long helped identify the network as part of the NBCUniversal family.

“This name further underscores our mission: to serve as your destination for breaking news and thoughtful analysis and remain the home for the perspectives that you’ve relied on for nearly 30 years,” the network wrote in an official statement shared Monday morning.

 “For our viewers who have watched us for decades, it may be hard to imagine this network by any other name,” the statement continued. “We understand. But our promise to you remains as it always has. You know who we are, and what we do.”

Social media users were swift to express their displeasure with the change. One user on X called it “one of the worst branding disasters in media history” and wrote that the new MS NOW logo “looks like it belongs on a discount computer from 1998.”

Another user vowed that, much like how they refused to call HBO Max just “Max” after it was temporarily rebranded, they will “never call [MSNBC] the new name.”

“This rebrand leaves me a little speechless,” a different user also admitted on X, while another user joked that “MSNBC’s horrible rebrand is going to bring Americans together again.”

You can check out some of the morning’s social media reactions yourself below.

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Alex Welch

Alex is an Audience Writer at TheWrap, based in Los Angeles. He has been covering the entertainment industry since 2013. Before joining TheWrap in 2025, he worked as a critic and reporter for A.frame, Digital Trends, Inverse, IGN, Looper, and multiple other outlets. A lifelong cinephile, he dreams of one day being invited to the…

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