MSNBC, With Ratings Plummeting, Needs More Than a Rebrand

MSNBC, ahead of its looming rebrand, is falling behind in the cable news wars. As Fox News Channel and CNN are finding ways to rise even during the traditional ratings desert of August, MSNBC is losing eyeballs — a trend that will worsen after it separates from NBC later this year.According to Nielsen data published by AdWeek’s TVNewser on Thursday, MSNBC averaged 797,000 viewers in primetime, a 3 percent drop from the previous week. Those in the coveted 25-to-54 age group rose 1 percent but to just 74,000, less capacity than Spartan Stadium at Michigan State University.The daytime slide was even steeper. MSNBC averaged 497,000 viewers, down 5 percent. The number of 25- to 54-year-old viewers fell 8 percent to just 44,000, about 2,500 short of a sellout at Yankee Stadium. CNN gained 4 percent in primetime and 10 percent daily. The logo for My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW. Versant via APCNN and Fox both benefited from coverage of President Trump’s diplomatic efforts with Russia to end the Ukraine war. Fox’s primetime audience leapt 13 percent with those 25 to 54 to an average of more than 2.3 million viewers, about three times MSNBC’s figure. CNN was up 10 percent daily and 14 percent in the key demographic. Fox had 13 of the top 15 shows for the week; MSNBC had two. Of the total primetime cable news audience, Fox held 65 percent at no. 1 against CNN at no. 8 and MSNBC at no. 16. Fox’s daily total was 1.5 million viewers, a 4 percent bump.MSNBC’s fade began in 2010 when it decided to skew its programming left, embracing the tagline “Lean Forward.” Two years later, NBCUniversal purchased Microsoft’s stake, ending an experiment that began in 1996 to link the burgeoning internet and news. When this columnist joined Fox ahead of its launch in October 1996, MSNBC loomed as a major upstart and CNN was an entrenched power. There didn’t seem to be room for a second network, much less a third. The feeling in the industry was that the understaffed, threadbare Fox would be left without a chair when the music stopped. Fox faced headwinds, including a boycott by Democratic politicians and a blackout in New York City. With NBC’s infrastructure, MSNBC could flood resources into breaking news. It was like, one Fox producer said, they could just “throw a switch” and crush us. Today, Fox is the behemoth and MSNBC the sick man of cable news. To watch them cover the same news event is to see two different realities. On the former, America is celebrated, and Mr. Trump can do little wrong. On the latter, he can do little right and the nation’s every flaw is trumpeted. MSNBC squandered its advantage by chasing the mirage of a leftist majority. It’ll soon be MS NOW, short for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World. The amateurish logo replacing NBC’s peacock is already drawing ridicule. A comedian, Erica Rhodes, posted on Instagram that the new name invoked multiple sclerosis, which claimed her father’s life. Others made the same association with the disease. One way MS NOW can recover is by returning to MSNBC’s roots as America’s Talking. That network featured shows produced on shoestring budgets with names such as “Am I Nuts?” It was created by the same executive, Roger Ailes, who built Fox, who had a vision he imprinted on the network. To compete in a media landscape with a glut of negative coverage about Mr. Trump, MS NOW will need a similar strong hand. Any shift may lose the small audience they have, but those viewers are likely to follow the network’s stars when they abandon the sinking ship, anyway. A vice president at Fox, Chester “Chet” Collier, once told me that when he started at the dawn of TV, three network heads controlled what Americans watched. “Now,” he said, holding up a remote control, “that power is in the hand of every American who has one of these.” MS NOW will need to reckon with that power. Keeping viewers from flipping past their rebranded, diminished network begins with taking an unbiased look at the national mood — leaning in not to lecture or berate Americans, but to listen to what they want to watch.

MSNBC, With Ratings Plummeting, Needs More Than a Rebrand

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