March 13, 2025

By Charlotte Klein

Jen Psaki speaks with senior producer Will Rabbe at MSNBC. Photo: Alyssa Schukar/Redux

If you were to start a media organization in 2025, probably the last thing it would be is a cable-news network. Younger audiences are fleeing television, making cable news a decidedly geriatric business. Earlier this year, CNN said it would eliminate about 200 jobs in its traditional TV operations while adding around the same number for digital positions. And yet building a cable-news channel from the ground up is basically what MSNBC is about to do.

When it was announced this past November that Comcast would be spinning off MSNBC — along with CNBC, E!, and other cable channels — from NBCUniversal, questions abounded about what the decision would mean for the progressive network. While MSNBC is best known for brainy talking heads like Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, for nearly three decades it has relied on NBC News for the newsgathering and verification that undergird a lot of its programming. Under SpinCo, the unfortunate provisional name for the new company, would MSNBC just become a pure opinion play? Was MSNBC being set free or cut loose?

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