The cable station, known as MSNBC until Saturday morning, has long been known for broadcasting trending news. Currently, the focus is on breaking news from reporters.
Yes, that’s what MSNBC was touting in September from reporters Carol Leonig and Ken Dilanian, who in 2024 discovered that the FBI allegedly recorded current White House Border Patrol agent Tom Homan receiving a paper bag containing $50,000 in cash from an undercover agent posing as a business executive. However, they reported that the investigation was discontinued after President Trump took office. Suddenly, instead of covering the news later in the evening, MSNBC began its news cycle.
The network, which just split from NBC News and NBCUniversal and changed its name to MS NOW, has been getting a lot of attention lately, but not necessarily with Lawrence O’Donnell’s latest rhetorical kick, Rachel Maddow’s insight, or Jen Psaki or Nicole Wallace’s internal government analysis. The network, which once relied entirely on its journalism outlet, NBC News, to inform its programming, now has dozens of its own journalists and is willing to report on the White House, the Department of Justice, and even Taylor Swift if it’s of interest to its viewers. In June, the network secured its first live interview with Sen. Alex Padilla, who was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security press conference. The network also features media figures who wouldn’t normally appear on MSNBC, such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Our newly formed journalism team has ambitious plans. “We’re going to have our reporters talk to people in the community to understand their perspectives and what America is like right now, and that’s honestly going to be the case,” says Joey Cole, who joined MS NOW as vice president of planning after working as a producer for NBC News. “We’ll go live.”
Could an injection of homegrown journalism dilute MS NOW’s greener tendencies? After all, sometimes facts can get in the way of a good prime-time monologue. And what happens when some of the findings of MS NOW’s news staff clash with what the station’s prime-time loyalists want to hear?
“I think it’s important to recognize that we’re a news department, and in our work, the news and the facts lead us to whatever conclusion we have. The facts take us into the story. And that’s what we’re here to do and what we’re focused on.” (MS “We’re not concerned at all about who’s going to like the story or who’s going to hate the story,” says Scott Matthews, NOW’s senior vice president of newsgathering. His staff’s work will be aired on MS NOW’s opinion shows and daytime news hours, as well as on both television and digital.
Under Rebecca Kutler, who was named president in February, the network has touted new editorial appointments including David Rohde, Jacob Soboroff and Leonig and Dilanian, as well as reporting partnerships with AccuWeather and Sky News. He also fell out with some of the more vocal figures on the left, such as Joy Reid and Katie Pan.
Still, at least no one managing MS NOW sees a tinge of purple. “I think our hosts are just as proactive about what they think about the news as they have always been,” Kutler says. “I’m very proud of our lineup.”
There’s a good reason why MS NOW tries to shock headlines. The network attracts more viewers overall than CNN, but it lags behind CNN and Fox News Channel in the audience advertisers seek most for their news shows: 25- to 54-year-olds. In Q3 2025, MS NOW viewership in this demographic was down 59% across show days, CNN was down 45%, and Fox News was down 26%.
CNN has already started focusing on daily news gathering. Warner Bros. Discovery Outlet recently launched a new “All Access” subscription streaming service that polishes on-the-ground reportage from around the world. MS NOW, which aims to provide viewers with world news and opinion, will have to compete.
Additionally, MS NOW is one of the largest assets in the portfolio of new parent company Versant, which will be separated from Comcast and NBC over the coming weeks. The new company faces continued declines in core revenue, according to a recent research note from MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett.
Affiliate commissions associated with Versant’s network will decline by 6.6% in 2024, and advertising revenue will decline by 7.2%, according to the analyst’s research. MS NOW’s ad sales are expected to decline 11% to $653.9 million in 2025, according to Kagan, S&P Global Intelligence’s market research arm.
But MS NOW is projected to increase in 2026, when the network gears up for a long run leading up to important national midterm elections. There are already signs of renewed interest among viewers. Election night, when Democrats won a pivotal seat in the year-end election cycle. MSNBC’s coverage drew viewers roughly on par with Fox News Channel, which typically dominates cable news viewers.
The newly assembled reporting staff, along with Sudeep Reddy, the network’s new Washington bureau chief, will be building teams dedicated to the White House, Congress, national security, legal affairs and more, working in and out of the Beltway. Meanwhile, other parts of the team want to delve into sites across the country to demonstrate the effectiveness of national policies. During the government shutdown, several reporters were sent to talk online with people in food pantries to show what the end of SNAP benefits means for the people who rely on them. “We’re covering all these things that are being decided in Washington and showing them the real-world impact,” said Erin Zimmerman, vice president of coverage. TikTok is trying to cover the entire spectrum. ”
They do everything without thinking. The bulk of the team was assembled over the past few months, with many coming from NBC News. And while MS-Old and MS-New are naturally driven by the news cycle, many more headlines in the coming days will be generated by the team that continues to come together. No pressure guys!
