MSNBC.com Disappears as Microsoft and NBC Dissolve 16-Year Partnership
- Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:16pm by
Erica Ritz
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MSNBC.com now automatically redirects. (Photo: Screen Shot)
(The Blaze/AP) — Microsoft is pulling out of the joint venture that owned MSNBC.com, freeing the world’s largest software maker to build its own online news service.
The breakup announced late Sunday dissolves the final shreds of a 16-year marriage between Microsoft Corp. and NBC News, which is now owned by Comcast Corp. 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, though the New York Times reports that Microsoft will receive roughly $300 million.
MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com.
(Photo: Screen Shot)
The online divorce stemmed from the two partners’ desire to gain greater control over their digital destinies as the Internet becomes an increasingly important part of their businesses.
The inherent constraints of being locked into a joint venture sometimes handcuffed Microsoft and NBC.
Microsoft, in particular, had grown frustrated by contract terms requiring it to exclusively feature MSNBC.com content on its own websites. That exasperation was exacerbated by the MSNBC cable channel‘s strategy to counter Fox News Channel’s appeal to conservative viewers by tailoring its programming for an audience with a liberal viewpoint.
The strategy fed a perception that material from MSNBC’s website was politically slanted, too.
“Being limited to MSNBC.com content was problematic to us because we couldn’t have the multiple news sources and the multiple perspectives that our users were telling us that they wanted,” said Bob Visse, general manager of MSN.com.
Now that it has shed those shackles, Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation, Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com.
By hiring its own news staff to feed material to its websites, Microsoft is embracing the same strategy as the owners of two other major Internet companies, Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc.
Microsoft has leaned on its lucrative franchise selling personal computer software to pay for massive Internet investments that have rarely paid off, much to the frustration of its shareholders. The software maker initially invested $220 million in the MSNBC joint venture. It’s unclear if Microsoft ended up making any money on the alliance. As a whole, the company’s online operations, which include the Bing search engine and MSN portal, have lost more than $10 billion in the past seven years.
Even as it sets out to compete against NBC News, Microsoft will continue to highlight the top stories from its former partner for the next two years under terms of the split.
Vivian Schiller is now with NBC, after resigning from NPR. (Photo: AP)
NBC News, in turn, believes it will be able to attract more traffic to its stable of websites by forging other partnerships that were off limits when it was tied to Microsoft.
“There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions,” said Vivian Schiller, NBC News’ chief digital officer. “This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better.”
Twitchy reminds that Vivian Schiller is the former president of NPR who resigned last year after a sting video showed another NPR manager making derogatory comments about conservatives.
MSNBC.com and its affiliated sites ranked as the Internet’s fourth most popular site for general news in the U.S., with nearly 50 million visitors in June, up 5 percent from last year, according to the research firm comScore Inc.
Yahoo’s recently formed alliance with ABC News topped the charts with 81 million visitors, followed by AOL/Huffington Post, and CNN.
As part of its online restructuring, NBC News plans to create a new online destination for the MSNBC cable channel’s personalities next year.
Although it will be based in New York, NBCNews.com will retain a significant staff in the Seattle area, according to Schiller. About 170 of MSNBC.com’s 300 employees worked in the Seattle area.
Microsoft is letting NBCNews.com remain in its Redmond office while it looks for a new location in the area.
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Comments (146)
lassiegirldawn
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:52amHow much do you think that the new Microsoft News will be unbiased? Commie In Chief was just here in Seattle and Gates is one of the biggest donors. If it were a newspaper instead of internet site, I would wipe my @ss with it.
Report Post »Pilgrimsarbour
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:52amI STILL would.
Report Post »mike_trivisonno
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:34amBill Gates a treasonous piece of communist crap. He should be deported and all of his wealth confiscated. Bill Gates; America-hating communist piece of filth.
Deport communists.
Report Post »MadinIllinois
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:58amI can only think of a handful of news sites – paper, internet, TV – that actually do their jobs and give you the news straight up! NBC will still be a far left, liberal news site that I don’t ever watch – . Could you imagine where we would be IF the news media had actually done their job and “vented” this embarrassing THUG in the White House in 2008 ??
Report Post »RayOne
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:59amWhy, RT serves many different audiences, Schiller will lead them in market positioning and rebranding.
Report Post »As a new world globalist, the American public is still on its own.
Zipit
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:08amJust put some really soft paper in you printer, download a few articles, print em up and have at it! Just make sure you have some hemorrhoid creme handy as the content and bias in those items may rub off and cause you considerable discomfort.
Report Post »DimmuBorgir
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 10:37am@ MIKE
you just don‘t like him cause you have a mac and can’t get off of apple’s junk
Report Post »antitheist
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:37pm@Mike
Report Post »So you want Bill Gates to be deported and have his wealth taken by the government (who else conducts deportations)? You say he’s a communist yet you want his wealth to be taken by the government? You right wingers don’t think right?
Benjamin Jarvis
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:50am‘MSNBC.com and its affiliated sites ranked as the Internet’s fourth most popular site for general news in the U.S., with nearly 50 million visitors in June, up 5 percent from last year…’
Having to see all of their edited videos and religion bashing for myself, then sharing that with others…that’s your 5% uptick. I can’t believe what has happened to NBC, absolutely no shame, logic or conviction for the truth. The truth always makes the best story. I guess the best way to reiterate that point is to watch this network dispatch itself into oblivion.
Report Post »pschlentz
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:56amCan‘t stand watching blatant prepared lies and acting like it’s news. What shamefull fools all these ‘News’ organizations have become.
Report Post »True Americans are on to them, and we’re growing.
hawkeyez
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:14amI just view and login to leave comments for the ******** to get upset at :-)
Report Post »designbyinspiration
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 6:17amThe only reason there is an increase in hits is people buy new Windows computers- and don’t know how to change the default homepage, lol. Way to stack the deck and create statistics simply with a certain marketing channel.
How typical of altering/editing NBC. BTW: Did they use Microsoft Movie Maker to do that?
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:50am@Design, true that!
Report Post »OhioRifleman
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:40am@ Design By Inspiration
Well, think of this way: now that MS-NBGC has been split, and MS is going to start their own news service, NBCNews will get little to no publicity on the common front page of IE browsers. I expect it will crater some day soon with this breakup, unless they retain the link forward for MSNBC.com
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:51amMSNBC’s website was number 4 only because logging out of hotmail automatically forwarded you to the MSNBC website.
Report Post »Bobj_1960
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 11:25amIt is ranked so high that it is the default home page for internet explorer unless changed by the user
Report Post »watersRpeople
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:48amOnly rats bed down with rats to begin with.
Report Post »starman70
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:23amRats also abandon a sinking ship.
Report Post »Redwood Elf
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:23pmYou watch…this will amount to a re-branding like what the liberals did with ACORN when they got caught with their short hairs in the cookie jar…
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:47amThis is going to cost NBC (MSNBC) a bunch.
I wonder if Matthews, Maddow, Shultz, O’Donnell, Bashir and Sharpton will have to take pay cuts?
Or even better… maybe some lay-offs?
Report Post »GO-FOR-LIBERTY
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:22amHow about working for minimum wage?
Report Post »Rolandd
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 6:30amObama can always use them in his ADmanipulation, ops I mean administration.
Report Post »DEMOCRATS.ARE.EVIL
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 7:33amNo layoffs – pink slips.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:43amMicrosoft is full of bleeding liberals so have no trust in the news content they will create from this breakup. They should just stick with Operating systems and office software, but they aren’t even doig that right of late (i.e, Win8‘s pretty much a joke from several reviews I’ve read). As for NBC, it‘s been a lost cause for such a long time that the only reason they are still open is from steady payments of BO’s stimulous money. lol
:)
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:41am“Microsoft is letting NBCNews.com remain in its Redmond office while it looks for a new location in the area.”
Russia’s not too far away. Then “Nothing But Communist NEWS” can say, “Hey, I can see Alaska from my work cubicle”.
Report Post »Too_Far_Gone
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:38amMS What ?
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:25amRats leaving sinking ships comes to mind!!! Will the re-brand the TV program now too? Just call them both NBC-BS?
Report Post »TJexcite
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:18amIt will be fun to see where the on air talent on MSNBC will have a online presence and how many people will still say and send people to MSNBC.com when there is no MSNBC.com.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:07amYeah! So no more jokes about PMS NBC. From now on, it’s just the Never Been Cross-checked News.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:39amHi LPHP’s
How about Nothing But Communist NEWS? : )
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:43amLESBIAN, oh no, make no mistake, the Premenstrual jokes will not even slow. We were never mocking the actual call letters, we are mocking the entire mindset. Got a problem with that? Let’s see your Packed-Hollow-Points; but be prepared for extremely blunt criticism. So, let‘s see ’em, Sweety. I’m waiting.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:12am@MONK ..
I like it … pretty much sums it up!
OMG 2012 LIBERTY!
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 10:28am@ Model 82A1:
Awwww. Is this YOUR time of the month?
It might help if you pulled the stick out.
I’m an fiscal arch Conservative/Libertarian/Objectivist. The only news I want out of MSNBC/NBCNews is news of the fire which engulfed every building and broadcast asset they own. The mindset of the PMSNBC crew would not be out of place in a Communist politburo meeting. They made me sick the few times I steeled myself to do research on what the enemy was saying in the moment.
Apropos of nothing, do you actually OWN a Barret .50BMG?
Report Post »Michael
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:05pmWhat will I do without MSLSD to make fun of?
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:18pmSimple, make fun of NBC News cable and broadcast Leftist wonks. Second verse, same as the first.
Report Post »Yankee
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:06am“…multiple perspectives that our users were telling us that they wanted…”
I think Microsoft will be hard pressed to offer up a fair balance of viewpoints once you consider that Seattle‘s hard veer to the left coincided with Microsoft’s heavy hiring back in the 90s from Ivy League schools. The only way the Company might offer a balanced product is if its highly honed ability to make a buck outweighs the underlying ideologies of its employees. I am skeptical of that happening in a region where a statue of Lenin overlooks a parade of naked bicycle riders on the Solstice.
It’s not that the alternate viewpoints cannot develop in the region, witness Amy Holmes, Michelle Malkin, and of course, Glenn Beck. But they had to leave to flourish.
Report Post »GrumpyCat
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:56pmMSNBC finally got so bad that Microsoft wanted out? Now that is my definition of REALLY BAD!
Report Post »KingCanon
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:53pmThis could be the litmus test proclaiming how Americans really comprehend the State of the Union.
Report Post »22AUTOMATIC
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:46pmMy brother-in-law’s sibliing was making accusations that MSNBC was the only “truthful” news network last year. He said Fox News was “propaganda.” So I bet him over Thanksgiving that if we picked any random date out of a bag that MSNBC would have more dishonest, more lies, omit more honest coverage, and have more propaganda than Fox News. The day we picked was two Tuesdays after Thanksgiving. We both had to write down anything “proven false” and present it to the other one that Friday for verification. As I expected from 6am to 11pm (DVR) he found ZERO on Fox and I literally had so many from MSNBC that I had to break out a second notebook. Just during Ed Shultz alone I found one ever 2 minutes and 19 seconds.(including even their promo commercials!) As if it wasn’t bad enough, they started putting “clever” written words at the bottom of the screen so in essence if it had been a drinking game I would have had to hook up an i.v drip moonshine just to keep up.
He tried hard to get just ONE by claiming Fox said the “Stimulus didn’t work” and he insisted it worked perfectly. Anyway, it was fun. He ended up having to donate $250 to Mercury One. Had I lost I would have had to donate the same amount to Media Matters. Easy Money & he doesn’t watch MSNBC anymore.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:40amThat’s a nice story.
Fox News is pretty popular over here, and I think that this is because it is more reliable. At the end of the day, people want their news to contain facts and when they find that they have been deliberately mislead because of the political persuasion of the editors or producers, they lose faith in the organisation and go elsewhere.
Even my left-wing friends watch Fox. They argue about the meaning of the story later,of course, but everyone likes to start with the facts. If their arguement is proven to be based on false information to start with, they get pretty ticked off. And who can blame them.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:38pm“Fantasy Island” isn’t a TV show anymore – maybe they can use that title.
Report Post »cemerius
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:27amI like NBC-BS.com :)
Report Post »ohiowordguy
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:38pmMSNBC was a bad idea then and now. It came about in the days of Netscape 1.0, when Bill Gates was telling the world what the Internet was going to be.
Microsoft ruled the world and Apple was teetering…Oh! How the might have fallen!
Who would have predicted then that Apple would become the most valuable company in the world, and slowly, methodically implement the “i” life that Gates boasted he would do.
…And all the while, MSNBC sucked!
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:52amNetscape went opensource and is now Mozilla Firefox which is more secure then Internet Explorer and even Canonical which holds Ubuntu Linux is kicking Microsofts butt in Operating systems it seems Microsoft is a Flailing Company.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:41amOpensource rocks.
Report Post »Wool-Free Vision
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:36pmUnfortunately, Microsoft will still be promoting NBC News for two more years, according to the separation agreement. However, I’ll bet Microsoft stock is about to JUMP up. Between this “divorce” from MSNBC and the fact that Google wants to be political, sending new users like me to Bing, finally add the fact that people are finally getting sick of Apple’s incessant jackassery, I’d say Microsoft is looking pretty good.
Report Post »VoteRightDammit
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:35pmMight have turned out differently if they had more than 7 total viewers ….
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:47pmActually it’s 6 viewers, one of the viewers has a double personality disorder.
Report Post »Al J Zira
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:34pmSO now we’ll have one more channel of NBC lies and a new network of Microsoft lies. Just another lying liberal .com being born.
Report Post »RLTW
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:32pmI think in cable vernacular this is called menopause.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:28pmAw-w-w-w-w, sounds like guppies eating each other. Awful luck with that ordeal, okay? Your viewership is dwindling.
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:53pmRJJingadsden – I have to agree with you.
“As a whole, the company’s online operations, which include the Bing search engine and MSN portal, have lost more than $10 billion in the past seven years.”
That’s more than a billion a year. And it took them at least seven years to do something about it.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:08amHi RJJ,
Al Sharpton in front of MSNBC headquarters……
“Hey buddy, can you spare a… we must… and we will much… about… that… a dime?
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 6:40amTAQUOSHI, I do a lot of online research for my hobby, as well as for a number of other things. I’ve used the search engine with my regular IPO, and it is supposed to be ‘enhanced’ by Google to some degree. Then I added Google Chrome and Bing. Had better success with those two at first. Then Bing became difficult to find things, and I relied more heavily on Chrome. Now, Google Chrome changed their entire format and I mean it really sucks. I am about to dump it altogether and probably try Safari more. My son loves Safari, but I’ve hardly used it…yet.
Report Post »MONK, LOL, that is funny, and I can actually picture it.
Marnin
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:27pmThey hired Vivian Schiller? New management, same direction. They will continue to slide into oblivion.
Report Post »GeorgieJo
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 12:06amFORMER NPR Vivian running NBC====TOTAL DISASTER
Report Post »You could NOT pay me to listen to NPR and NBC has been on my **** List for years.
Matt Loser/Savaknee Gutherie/AndreaFaultGreenspan/MarteenBasheeer/ChrissybarkerTingles/EddieUnionSchiltz/LarryO’Donkey/Tourette and the losers keep on going………….
OMG 2012
mattmo79
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:26pmBoycott Comcast to shut down this irresponsible organization!!
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:23pmHa, hahaha……..HA HA HA…….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA……….HAAAAAAAAAhAHA.
Holy crap, I just laughed so hard, milk came out of my nose, and I’m not drinking milk.
So MSNBC.com is being disolved, what will NBC call their “So Called News” cable program. Oh, I got a new name for them, “Cancelled”. Maybe MSNBC, Current, and OWN can merge, they can call it. “Not Watched”
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:44pmNice!
Report Post »oriondma05
Posted on July 15, 2012 at 11:21pmAnd MSNBC the “news” channel?
Report Post »