MSNBC
| MSNBC logo | |
| Type | cable television network |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Availability | United States, Canada |
| Owner | 82% NBC Universal, 18% Microsoft |
Key people | Rick Kaplan, president |
Launch date | July 15, 1996 |
Official website | msnbc.msn.com |
MSNBC (a portmanteau of Microsoft and NBC) is a 24-hour cable news channel in the United States. MSNBC is currently America's third most-watched cable news channel [1], after Fox News, and CNN, but ahead of CNBC and CNN Headline News. It is available in 83.6 million households in the U.S. and broadcasts primarily out of its studios in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Currently, MSNBC is a mix of opinion hosts from across the political spectrum: Keith Olbermann leans to the left; Chris Matthews, although he admittedly supported George W. Bush for president, was a former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and is only recently leaning to the right; while Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, and Tucker Carlson are solidly on the right. Opinion is combined with rolling news coverage during the day.
MSNBC was founded by Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit, which is now NBC Universal. Although Microsoft and NBC shared operations of the venture at its founding, it was announced on December 23, 2005 that NBC Universal will purchase a majority stake in the television network, leaving Microsoft with 18%. MSNBC.com, MSNBC's vastly more popular online component, remains half-owned by each partner. MSNBC, like sister channel CNBC, shares the NBC logo of a rainbow peacock. It is rumored that NBC Universal will more than likely rename MSNBC as NBC News Channel in the very near future [2].
History
Development
Microsoft and NBC announced on December 14, 1995 that they would be creating MSNBC. The stated purpose was to combine the resources and reputation of NBC News with the technology of Microsoft to bring an integrated news service on the Microsoft Network and cable television. Microsoft would invest $220 million for a 50% share of the cable network, while MSNBC and Microsoft would share the cost of a $200 million newsroom based in Redmond, Washington. NBC would supply the space from the 18 month old America's Talking network. Interestingly, Roger Ailes, then president of America's Talking, was passed over when NBC executives were looking for someone to run their new cable news operation. Ailes subsequently joined News Corporation as president of the newly-formed CNN rival, Fox News Channel.
MSNBC utilized America's Talking's subscriber base of 20 million cable households. NBC was concerned about competition in the cable news field from the other established networks: CBS was considering partnering with CNN, and ABC was creating their own news channel. Furthermore, NBC felt that their expansion could be accomplished without a significant increase in costs. Partnering with Microsoft made sense for NBC, since they already had smaller-scale agreement for NBC News to provide some news content to the Microsoft Network.
Launch
MSNBC was launched on July 15, 1996 at 9AM EDT from studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The first show, anchored by Jodi Applegate, broadcast an eclectic lineup of news, interviews, and opinions. During the day, rolling news coverage continued with The Contributors, a show that featured Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, as well as interactive programming coordinated by Applegate, John Gibson, and John Seigenthaler Jr. Stories were generally longer and more detailed than the stories running on CNN at the time.
MSNBC originally demonstrated the interactive value of the Internet. The network's first slogan was It's Time to Get Connected. Primetime featured an hour-long interview program called Internight (which showcased the stars of NBC News), followed by the network's flagship newscast, The News with Brian Williams, and The Site, a show about the Internet and computers co-hosted by Soledad O'Brien and a computer-generated character. The first Internight included an interview with President Bill Clinton, who took questions from callers and e-mailers. Other shows that made use of the internet included News Chat featuring Mary Kathleen Flynn, and a look into the past with Time & Again anchored by Jane Pauley. Black Entertainment Television host Ed Gordon also contributed to the new network by hosting the Saturday version of Internight.
The start was a bit rocky due to a series of changes in management and continuing internal squabbles over the direction of the network. In addition, NBC affiliates were concerned that the cross-promotion would divert viewers from their own programs, although that fear abated as the years passed. However, MSNBC was often first to break news. It broke the story of the crash of TWA Flight 800 eight minutes before CNN, ushering in an era of hypercompetitiveness between the news channels that continues today.
The next phase of MSNBC was a new morning centerpiece. MSNBC signed a simulcast agreement with Infinity Broadcasting station WFAN to carry the Imus in the Morning radio show, which began on September 2, 1996. In November 1996, the network moved to the new Secaucus studios.
Not just the Net
The original founder's goals of the network attracting a younger, tech-savvy audience, failed to materialize, however. After its first year, the network had 24,000 households viewing it per night, paling by comparison to the 578,000 of CNN and the 30,000 of Fox News (then four months younger than MSNBC). In September 1997, MSNBC laid off 20% of its staff, and cancelled The Site due to low ratings, causing howls of protest from its viewers, many of whom considered O'Brien a cult figure. Internight was replaced with The Big Show, hosted by Keith Olbermann, in hopes that his irreverent style would spike up ratings. The network began moving away from its Internet roots and began covering fashion and celebrity like the other news channels.
The MSNBC web site remained relatively successful, regularly leading the rankings of the most-used online news site in 1997, 1998, and 1999. MSNBC multiplied its ratings by tenfold during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, following a new covering the Big Story format that provided saturation coverage for the top stories. However, in November 1998, Keith Olbermann left over MSNBC's continuing focus on the impeachment. He was replaced by John Hockenberry, who achieved some success. His Edgewise program focused on newsmakers and made use of Hockenberry's documentary skills.
The ratings began to drop after the impeachment trial was completed. MSNBC's experiment with John McLaughlin in February 1999 lasted only a couple of months. Fox was beating MSNBC in numbers of viewers per 24 hours, which was more impressive considering MSNBC's distribution advantage. NBC News stars began shunning the network. Low-rated chat shows such as Watch It, and Equal Time, a Crossfire knockoff, filled out the schedule. Hockenberry was replaced after only six months by a rebroadcast of Hardball from CNBC. That show was replaced by Headliners and Legends, a biography program that has been a weekend staple on the network ever since. Also in 1999, the management of MSNBC replaced midday news coverage with a delayed broadcast of NBC News Today called Today on MSNBC and repackaged Dateline NBC stories into MSNBC Investigates, a decision that angered NBC affiliates. On the other hand, 1999 saw a partnership with the Washington Post that permitted more integrated coverage on the web site.
In 2000, a three woman anchored show named Home Page hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Gina Gaston, and Mika Brzezinski began. Along with Home Page, MSNBC tried to gather radio fans by signing a deal with Detroit radio station WJR to simulcast the first two hours of The Mitch Albom Show. While the pairing was a ratings winner, both shows would eventually be cancelled: Home Page due to sinking ratings; and The Mitch Albom Show due to its constant pre-emptions and some disagreements with the MSNBC management. 2000 also saw the cancellation of Equal Time and the departure of John Gibson, one of the original MSNBC hosts, whose confrontational tenure as the host of the Feedback primetime program foreshadowed his controversial opinion program on the Fox News Channel. MSNBC continued to repackage NBC News programs (Special Edition and Crime Files), and during the 2000 presidential election cycle, reporters and interviews were cycled constantly between broadcast NBC and the cable news channel. MSNBC also commissioned original documentaries similar to The Discovery Channel for use as filler on weekends. Later in the year, Lester Holt received kudos for his daily coverage of the Florida election controversy, allowing MSNBC to beat Fox News during November 2000.
Ratings freefall
2001 began with MSNBC sinking in ratings by 75%. The channel reverted to Headliners & Legends and MSNBC Investigates, eschewing the aggressive talking head format of the Fox News Channel. With MSNBC floundering, MSNBC reversed its stance and tried to copy the Fox News Channel's emphasis on opinion hosts. In January, Mike Barnicle got a show on MSNBC, but it was quickly cancelled. In June, as a sign of the continuing trouble of MSNBC, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that he wouldn't have started MSNBC knowing what he knew now. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, MSNBC did prove useful as an outlet for NBC News to provide up-to-the-minute coverage, in contrast to broadcast NBC's longer stories. CNBC and CNBC Europe, with little financial news to report, ran MSNBC for many hours of the day following the attacks. The year also boosted the profile of Ashleigh Banfield, who had escaped injury while covering the World Trade Center on September 11. Her Region In Conflict program capitalized on her newfound celebrity and showcased exclusive interviews from Afghanistan. Also, CNN.com surpassed MSNBC.com as the most-used online news site.
2002 continued MSNBC's focus on opinion journalism. Alan Keyes is Making Sense debuted in January, featuring the conservative one-time candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination. Jerry Nachman joined MSNBC as its editor-in-chief and host of a news analysis program in May, and liberal talk-show pioneer Phil Donahue began hosting an evening talk show in July. The News with Brian Williams was relegated to CNBC, leaving MSNBC with primarily opinion shows in the evening. Afternoons replaced the rolling news coverage with talk shows featuring Curtis Sliwa, Ron Kuby, Bill Press, and Pat Buchanan. For a time, MSNBC featured a show hosted by right-wing shock-jock Michael Savage, which turned out to have been an embarrassing move when Savage bawled at a gay caller on his show, calling him a "pig" and a "sodomite," telling him to "get AIDS and die" and "go eat a sausage and choke on it." Savage was immediately fired.
Somewhat counter-intuitively, MSNBC also rebranded itself as America's NewsChannel, with a patriotic theme proclaiming MSNBC to be fiercely independent. MSNBC's president claimed that Americans wanted to hear more analysis, amid fears from some MSNBC employees that the news channel would close altogether and become a home for NBC entertainment reruns.
The experiment did not last long. Keyes was gone by July. Sliwa and Kuby were removed in October. Donahue's ratings plunged spectacularly, from 660,000 households his first week to just 136,000 households his sixth week, a drop of 80%. The network was regularly beaten in the ratings by CNN Headline News. Overall, ratings dropped 60% from the previous year. MSNBC publicly proclaimed support for Donahue and moved some shows around to try to stabilize his ratings, which helped increase his viewership to 376,000 households. Nevertheless, the cancellation of his show would stick in the craw of some left-leaning viewers for years. They saw it as an indication that executives had no faith in liberal viewpoints. A new show, Countdown, debuted. Originally it was focused on the war in Iraq, but eventually, it became a vehicle for Keith Olbermann to return his irreverent style to the network after his self-imposed exile from news. Olbermann became a sharp and consistent critic of President George W. Bush. On the other hand, the web site was still holding its own with CNN, and CNN and MSNBC were trading the No. 1 and 2 positions as most-viewed online news.
In 2005, Rita Cosby, an investigative journalist with no discernable political affiliation, jumped to MSNBC from Fox News Channel to host a nightly show focusing mostly on big interviews, which led to a slight improvement in ratings.
To compound the network's ratings woes, CNN Headline News completely revamped its primetime block of programming in 2005, replacing its traditional newswheel format with a long-form newscast, entertainment programs, and opinionated hosts, most notably the polarizing victims' advocate Nancy Grace. This has allowed HLN to vault past MSNBC in the crucial primetime viewing period, with HLN consistently rating higher than MSNBC in terms of total viewers (ages 2+) in the 8-11pm ET timeslot.
On December 23, 2005, it was announced that NBC Universal will acquire an additional 32% share of the television network from Microsoft, solidifying its control over television operations and allowing NBC to further consolidate MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. MSNBC.com will continue to be 50% owned by both NBC and Microsoft, and its operations will be largely unaffected. NBC will have the option to buy the remaining 18% share from Microsoft after two years.
Online
MSNBC.com, is the online news outlet for the NBC News family (Today Show, Nightly News and Dateline) as well as the cable channel's affiliated Web site is currently in a fierce battle with CNN.com for the position of top online U.S. news site.
The site is produced out of newsrooms in Redmond, Washington and Secaucus, New Jersey.
MSNBC.com consists of news and features from MSNBC, MSNBC.com, NBC News, The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, among others. MSNBC.com is the news provider for MSN, the portal site and online service operated by Microsoft. MSNBC.com hosts show Web sites for NBC News shows such as Dateline NBC, Today and NBC Nightly News.
Programming on MSNBC
MSNBC's programming is segmented in to four distinct segments: early morning, daytime, primetime and weekend. Note all times are Eastern Time.
Mornings
Early mornings start with First Look anchored by Kristine Johnson. The show airs live at 5 a.m. and repeats at 5:30 a.m.
Imus in the Morning is a simulcast of nationally syndicated radio personality Don Imus's show from WFAN radio. The program originates from MSNBC studios in New Jersey, the Imus Ranch in Ribera, New Mexico and the WFAN-AM studios in Queens, New York. Imus airs from 6–9 a.m. Satellite radio (only XM currently offers MSNBC) replays First Look, since XM does not have the rights to rebroadcast Imus' radio show. Starting Tuesday April 25th, the previous nights episode of Countdown will re-air from 9am-10am
Daytime
Daytime programming consists primarily of traditional newscasts. Amy Robach and Randy Meier kick off MSNBC Live (known internally as Newsforce). These two co-anchor the 9am-12pm hours.(STARTING TUESDAY, 9AM-12PM... WHEN ROBACH LEAVES FOR MATERNITY LEAVE THE FORMAT IS UNKNOWN.) Alison Stewart and Chris Jansing are main anchors for the afternoon edition of MSNBC Live, featuring the latest news, live coverage, breaking news and special features. Other MSNBC Live Anchors include Contessa Brewer, Bill Fitzgerald, Kristine Johnson, Milissa Rehberger, Alex Witt, Dan Kloeffler and Collette Cassidy. Occasionally NBC correspondents Melissa Stark, Donna Gregory, Norah O'Donnell, Willow Bay and Natalie Allen, along with MSNBC.com's Dara Brown serve as anchors on "MSNBC Live". Meteorologist Sean McLaughlin and NBC Weather Plus meteorologists (Bill Karins, Elise Finch, Jeff Ranieri, Jackie Meretsky, and Kristen Cornett) provide weather reports, and CNBC Market Updates air at 30 past the hour. Starting at 3:30, and running at 4:30 and 5:30 as well, CNBC Market Wrap airs. These segments are the length of regular news updates, and are usually hosted by Margaret Brennan.
Evening/Primetime
Evening programming begins at 4 p.m. with The Abrams Report, hosted by NBC Chief Legal Correspondent Dan Abrams. The show focuses on the top legal stories of the day. At 5 p.m., Hardball with Chris Matthews airs. Hosted by political reporter and author Chris Matthews, Hardball serves up a mix of political and other news, and is sometimes the network's top-rated program. The 4-6 p.m. block reairs from 6-8 p.m. "The Abrams Report" and Hardball are sometimes updated for the later airings when news warrants.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a sometimes irreverent look at the day's top news, shown each weekday at 8 p.m. Hosted by former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Keith Olbermann, Countdown is styled like a radio music countdown, starting with the day's number five story (usually the top story of the day) progressing to number one (which is usually fluff). The higher the story number, the more buzz it is expected to get around the water cooler. This is the second time Olbermann has hosted a show for the network; he hosted The Big Show from 1997 to 1998.
Former Fox News anchor Rita Cosby hosts Rita Cosby: Live & Direct at 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday.
Scarborough Country with former Florida representative Joe Scarborough airs at 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and focuses on political, social, media and religious issues.
Former CNN Crossfire co-host Tucker Carlson hosts The Situation with Tucker Carlson at 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday.
The 8 p.m. to midnight block reairs from midnight to 4 a.m., followed by a reair of The Abrams Report.
Fridays, from 9 p.m. to midnight, Crimetime In Primetime airs, featuring episodes of MSNBC Reports, and MSNBC Investigates.
Weekends
Weekends consist of live or topical programs from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
On Saturdays, live coverage begins at 8 a.m. with Alex Witt and runs through 10 a.m. when the half-hour long Weekends with Maury and Connie, hosted by television news veterans and married couple Connie Chung and Maury Povich, airs. Witt then returns to helm MSNBC's live coverage until noon, followed by Contessa Brewer from noon-4 p.m. and a re-airing of Weekends at 4 p.m. Live news concludes with another half-hour of MSNBC Live at 4:30 hosted by Dan Kloeffler. On Sundays, Weekends airs one hour later at 11 a.m., otherwise the schedule is the same.
Weekend evenings kick-off at 5 p.m. with Headliners and Legends followed by a mix of MSNBC Reports, MSNBC Investigates, and other programs. Brief news cut-ins are delivered by Collette Cassidy on Saturdays and Milissa Rehberger on Sundays at the bottom of each hour.
The network cablecasts Meet the Press with Tim Russert each Sunday evening at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Former programming
Past hosts
MSNBC is derided by broadcasting analysts for its "revolving door" tactics when it comes to talent, i.e. rapidly canceling shows and having its anchors depart after only a couple of years with the network. None of MSNBC's current anchors have been with the network since its conception.
Past MSNBC shows featured hosts such as Soledad O'Brien, Jesse Ventura, Ann Curry, Lawrence O'Donnell, Phil Donahue, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Bill Press, Jerry Nachman, Ashleigh Banfield, Stone Phillips, Brian Williams, John Hockenberry, John McLaughlin, Curtis Sliwa, Ron Kuby, Mitch Albom, Michael Savage, Bill Moyers, Andrea Mitchell, Mike Barnicle, Deborah Norville, John Gibson, Frank Luntz, Laurie Dhue, Jane Pauley, Leo Laporte, Ron Reagan, Monica Crowley, Sharon Tay and a number of others.
Past Anchors of MSNBC Live
Past anchors of MSNBC Live have included Lester Holt, Forrest Sawyer, John Seigenthaler Jr., Laurie Jennings, Bob Kur, Jeannie Ohm, Christy Musumeci, Bianca Solorzano, Sam Shane, John Elliott, Maurice DuBois (formerly of WNBC-TV), Rob Morrison (WNBC), Bud Hedinger(briefly),Cheryl Casone, Gregg Jarrett, Virginia Cha, Jessica Yellin, Lisa Daniels, Alexis Glick, Natalie Morales among others.
Satellite radio
MSNBC program audio is also available on XM Satellite Radio. Don Imus' Imus in the Morning is syndicated via Westwood One, which generally does not allow live radio broadcasts via Internet streams or satellite radio, and thus is not currently available on the XM MSNBC channel. In the place of Imus from 6-9 a.m., XM airs six repeats of the 5:30 a.m. half hour of First Look. Primetime programming on Saturday and Sunday nights from 8-11 p.m. are replaced with repeats of the programming from the same time on the previous Thursday and Friday nights, respectively.
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