Breaking: MSNBC.com Becomes NBCNews As Microsoft Sells Stake In Online News

Microsoft, part owner of the online news site MSNBC.com, has sold its remaining stake in the NBC-Microsoft news giant to NBC, itself owned by Comcast Cable. The future of the cable TV operation of MSNBC seems secure, although, in a letter to readers, NBC News stated “MSNBC TV will launch a new digital home in 2013, as an extension of the MSNBC TV on-air brand.” Initially, this move primarily affects the online news site most directly, although visitors to most of MSNBC.com or msnbc.msn.com are automatically redirected to a mildly retooled NBCNews.com.

“Early next year, MSNBC.com will be reborn as a stand-alone site for the cable channel MSNBC, ending the brand confusion that has plagued the site in the past,” the New York Times reported:

With the changes, “we will fully own our digital businesses,” said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News. That’s because the company that controls NBC, Comcast, is acquiring Microsoft’s 50 percent stake in the joint venture that brought MSNBC.com to life in the mid-1990s — in effect, a big investment by Comcast in the news division’s future.

Microsoft is receiving roughly $300 million for the stake, according to people with knowledge of the transaction who insisted on anonymity because the total price was not being made public. A portion of the total price comes from the joint venture’s past profits.

“The relationship began to unwind in 2005 when Microsoft sold its stake in MSNBC’s cable TV channel to NBC. NBC is buying Microsoft’s 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com,” the Associated Press reported very late Sunday evening.

“Today we’re taking on a new name — NBCNews.com. While our name is changing, our commitment is not. In fact, in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll be bringing you more of what you love today, and NBCNews.com will stay true to its mandate of delivering the news you need with the innovative spirit you’ve come to expect across all of our digital platforms. Over the years, we’ve won dozens of awards for our digital coverage, but the real reward has been serving you, our audience,” Jennifer Sizemore, NBCNews.com General Manager & Editor-In-Chief in a letter to readers:

So while you’ll notice some changes to our logos and navigation, nothing’s going away.

In fact, there’s more to come: MSNBC TV will launch a new digital home in 2013, as an extension of the MSNBC TV on-air brand, creating in-depth content and a community for the passionate audiences of MSNBC programs. Until then, MSNBC TV’s digital content will continue to be available on this site, right where you’ve always found it.

Noting that the “ties are deep, and untangling them will take at least two years,” NBC News itself in a lengthy story reported:

Many details of the arrangement remain to be worked out, and financial terms weren’t disclosed.

But NBC News President Steve Capus said the site — one of the news industry’s earliest and most successful online operations — would become part of NBC News Digital, a new division led by Vivian Schiller, the former president and chief executive of National Public Radio. Schiller joined NBC News as chief digital officer last year.

“Some really talented journalists have passed through the doorway of msnbc.com and taken us to the point where we have something that is an outstanding set of properties, and we value them to such a degree that we decided that we wanted to own them outright,” she said.

In the short term, msnbc.com will reflect the homepage of NBCNews.com. Eventually, it will become the address of MSNBC TV, giving MSNBC TV its own dedicated address and ending an arrangement under which the news site shared the MSNBC name with an increasingly commentary-driven channel.

Vivian Schiller left NPR in the wake of the Juan Williams firing and another ludicrous partisan distraction that was orchestrated by Republicans. In March of 2011, James O’Keefe, responsible for the doctored videos that led to the demise of ACORN and the defunding of Planned Parenthood, breitbarted NPR.

The Times added:

In describing MSNBC.com, Mr. Capus said, “What we have right now is fine.” He stretched out the last word. “But I hate the word ‘fine.’ We want something more than fine.”

Like a couple who stays together for far too long — to their friends’ discomfort — the breakup between NBC and Microsoft has been a long time coming. The partnership was pioneering at first, with a best-in-its-class Web site owing to Microsoft’s technologists in Washington State and a companion cable news channel run by NBC’s news-gathering teams in New York. But drastic changes in the media business, differing priorities inside the companies and the physical distance between them brought them apart.

Microsoft’s stake in the cable channel was dissolved in 2005.

MSNBC.com and its associated sites have 50 million visitors, according to comScore; CNN and its sites have nearly 56 million.

At first, NBCNews.com will retain sections for MSNBC’s political programs like “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Morning Joe.” But those will be moved onto a new MSNBC.com early next year, further splintering traffic.

Most of the joint venture’s roughly 300 employees will remain employed by NBC.

The name, Mr. Capus said, “liberates them to think: how do we jump forward a couple steps ahead of everybody else, in terms of new ways to deliver news, new ways to deliver video?”

Said Mr. Kelly, “There’s a big opportunity for the MSNBC cable brand to have its own digital destination.”