Pressure of Truth
The news, with the spin made visible.
Outlet profile

MSNBC (ms.now)

U.S. left

Owned byVersant Media Group (Nasdaq: VSNT), a publicly traded company spun off from Comcast/NBCUniversal on January 2, 2026; Brian L. Roberts retains roughly 33% of voting power through Class B supervoting shares
FundingCable carriage fees paid by cable and satellite providers, plus national television advertising revenue; a direct-to-consumer membership subscription product is in development
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

MSNBC launched on July 15, 1996, as a 50-50 joint venture between NBC and Microsoft, combining NBC's news infrastructure with Microsoft's early internet presence. Microsoft sold its stake in the cable channel by 2005 and fully exited the online partnership by 2012, leaving Comcast-owned NBCUniversal as sole owner. Through the 2000s and 2010s the channel shifted from general news toward left-leaning political opinion programming, with hosts such as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and Lawrence O'Donnell defining its progressive identity. In November 2024, Comcast announced plans to spin off most of its cable networks—including MSNBC—into a separate company. On November 15, 2025, the channel rebranded as MS NOW, a backronym for 'My Source for News, Opinion, and the World,' relocated its studios to 229 West 43rd Street in Manhattan, and formally separated its newsgathering from the NBC News brand. The spinoff closed January 2, 2026, with Versant Media Group beginning to trade independently on Nasdaq. AllSides rates it Left with medium confidence; Ad Fontes Media rates it hyper-partisan left with mixed reliability; Media Bias/Fact Check flags emotionally loaded story selection favoring left perspectives. During the Trump administration's second term, the outlet has devoted a majority of its coverage to administration actions with a consistently critical editorial frame.

Sources

  1. MS NOW – Wikipedia
  2. Versant – Wikipedia
  3. Comcast Completes Versant Spinoff, Cable Networks Company Stock Drops – Variety
  4. Versant Launches, Comcast Spins Off E!, CNBC and MS NOW – Yahoo Finance
  5. MSNBC Media Bias – AllSides
  6. MS Now (MSNBC) – Media Bias/Fact Check
  7. MS NOW (MSNBC) Website Bias and Reliability – Ad Fontes Media
  8. Exclusive: MS Now, Formerly MSNBC, to Launch Subscription Product – Axios
  9. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC Earn More Than $200 Million in September Ad Revenue – Barrett Media
  10. MS NOW or Never — Everything to Know About Versant's Bold MSNBC Rebrand – Cord Cutters News

Profile compiled 2026-06-26; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record