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Type of site | News website |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | NBCUniversal (Comcast) |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | None |
| Launched | 1996; 29 years ago (1996) (as msnbc.com) |
NBCNews.com, formerly known asmsnbc.com, is anews website owned and operated byNBCUniversal as the online arm ofNBC News. Along with original and wire reporting, it features content from digital operations such asNBC News Now, and television programming such asToday,NBC Nightly News,Meet The Press, andDateline NBC,
The site was founded in 1996 as a 50-50 venture betweenNBC andMicrosoft; at the same time the two companies formed a separate joint venture for the cable news networkMSNBC. Although they shared the same name, msnbc.com and MSNBC maintained separate corporate structures and news operations, with msnbc.com headquartered on the West Coast on the Microsoft campus inRedmond, Washington, and MSNBC in the NBC headquarters in New York.
Microsoft divested its stake in the MSNBC channel in 2005, and divested its stake in msnbc.com in July 2012; the channel was concurrently rebranded under the NBC News name, and the msnbc.comdomain name was later relaunched as a site for the cable network.
The site was established asmsnbc.com in 1996 at the same time as theMSNBC cable news channel. Both were initially joint ventures with the software companyMicrosoft, with boards of directors composed of senior executives from Microsoft and NBC Universal. The MSNBC TV channel was based inNew Jersey, and msnbc.com was based at Microsoft's headquarters inRedmond, Washington. While NBC bought Microsoft's stake in MSNBC in 2005, msnbc.com remained a partnership between the two companies, with MSNBC and msnbc.com remaining separate entities.[1] Msnbc.com also acquired several other news websites, including community-driven news siteNewsvine in October 2007, and thehyperlocal news siteEveryBlock[2] in August 2009. It also launched an internal start-up, BreakingNews.com.[3]
Despite sharing its name with the MSNBC channel, the content of the two outlets had become increasingly distinct. While msnbc.com remained a traditional,nonpartisan news service with its own staff of NBC News journalists, the MSNBC channel now primarily carriedliberal-leaningopinion-based programming covering U.S. politics. NBC's staff were concerned about the differences, as some readers may have believed that the msnbc.com site was also a liberal-oriented news outlet like the channel. Plans were drafted to re-brand its conventional news site under a different name, such as NBCNews.com, and to re-purpose msnbc.com as a website for the MSNBC channel itself.[1]
On July 14, 2012, NBCUniversal officially announced that Microsoft had sold back its half share of msnbc.com for $300 million. On the same day, NBC also announced the immediate renaming of msnbc.com to NBCNews.com, and an impending relaunch of MSNBC.com in 2013 as an opinion-based website featuring content from the network's personalities and contributors. Despite the separation of msnbc.com from Microsoft, the site would still be a part of and receive traffic from Microsoft'sMSN.com portal. NBC shut down the three msnbc.com start-ups: Newsvine, Everyblock, and BreakingNews.[4][5][6]
Gregory Gittrich, the former editor-in-chief of NBC Local Integrated Media and, before that, the assistant managing editor of theNew York Daily News, was named vice president and executive editor of msnbc.com in October 2012, and began to sharply reduce the news staff, pulling back from doing original journalism online.[7]He reported toVivian Schiller, former chief executive officer ofNational Public Radio. By 2014, with the msnbc.com staff greatly reduced, Gittrich was atVocativ, with Schiller soon to join him as a consultant there.
On February 5, 2014, a major redesign of NBCNews.com was introduced; NBC News presidentDeborah Turness explained that the new design is intended to "[tear] down the walls that traditionally have divided TV and digital", by emphasizing multimedia content, original features, and more original reporting from NBC News personalities. The new site uses aresponsive design with an infinite scrolling grid of stories, along with new original features such as "Know It All", "The Debunker", and "Show Me".[8][9]
Reception to the new design was mixed, with criticism directed towards its image-oriented layout rather than a clearer, headline-oriented design; however, the redesign did result in a significant increase in traffic for the site, especially on mobile devices—which saw a 186% increase in traffic. Executive editor Gregory Gittrich admitted that the site's staff members "weren't surprised by the initial feedback because the change was so significant, but that’s why the data and metrics were obviously important." Changes were made to the design to address these shortcomings, including the addition of dedicated areas with a listing of recent headlines, followed by an overhaul of the home page to use a more traditional layout, but still incorporating large images for major headlines.[10][11]
As of May 2009, NBCNews.com had ranked first in U.S. unique users among global news sites for 12 months in a row. In May it had 37.2 million unique users in the U.S. for the month, according toNielsen/NetRatings.[12] In second place wasYahoo! News with 35.8 million, thenCNN with 34.4. At last count, NBCNews.com also served the most online video of any new site, with more than 125 million video streams in May 2008.[13]
September 2014 rankings show NBCNews.com at number 7 among most popular news websites at 63 million unique visitors a month. Less than half of Yahoo! News (175M) andGoogle News (150M).[14]
NBCNews.com covers national and international news of general interest, using original and wire service reporting, as well as videos from the network's television division, and partners includingThe New York Times.
A major focus is online content for the NBC News family of programming, includingToday,NBC Nightly News,Dateline,Meet the Press, andprogramming on MSNBC television. This content includesbehind the scenes blogs such as "The Daily Nightly", a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News; "First Read", analysis of the day's political news from the NBC News Political Unit; "allDAY", allowing viewers to see behind the scenes of Today; and Zeitgeist, a satirical video blog hosted byMSNBC'sWillie Geist. Original content from international correspondents and producers is posted on World News on NBCNews.com.[15]
Video is distributed via theMSN Video service. Additionally, the website provides price quotes of companies' shares publicly listed throughMSN Money,weather forecasts throughWeather.com,RSS feeds,podcasts, andnetcasts of the network's broadcasts. Following the introduction ofCNN's iReport concept, NBCNews.com also introduced acitizen journalism section titled "First Person".[16] The section allows viewers to upload video, photos and stories in response to suggested topics.
In 2017, NBCNews.com introduced new verticals such as "Mach", which covers science and technology, and "Better", with health and life tips,[17][18][19] along with a digital opinion section called "THINK".[20]
As the former msnbc.com, the site won several journalism and online publishing awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists award for online investigative reporting,[21] Online News Association's Online Journalism Award for General Excellence[22] and Best Use of Multiple Media;[22] National Press Club's Best Journalism Site;[23] for its coverage ofHurricane Katrina, "Rising from Ruin",[24] and the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers[25] and Best Use of Multiple Media.[22]