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 The home page for NBCNews.com, as of April 19, 2013. |
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| Web address | www.NBCNews.com |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | News website |
| Registration | None |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | NBCUniversal |
| Launched | 1996 |
| Alexa rank | 12 (U.S.), 1944 (Worldwide) |
NBCNews.com, formerly known as msnbc.com, is a news website owned and operated by NBCUniversal as the online arm of NBC News. Along with original and wire reporting, it features content from NBC shows such as Today, NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC, the MSNBC cable channel, and partners such as The New York Times.
The site was founded in 1996 as a 50-50 venture between NBCUniversal and Microsoft at the same time as the cable news network MSNBC. Although they shared the same name, msnbc.com and MSNBC maintained separate corporate structures and news operations. Microsoft divested its stake in the MSNBC channel in 2005, and divested its stake in msnbc.com in July 2012.
Gregory Gittrich, the former editor-in-chief of NBC Local Integrated Media and, before that, the assistant managing editor of the New York Daily News, was named vice president and executive editor of NBCNews.com in October, 2012.[1] Jennifer Brown, formerly the General Manager of TODAY.com, was named vice president and executive editor of TODAY.com. .[2] They report to Vivian Schiller, former chief executive officer of National Public Radio. Charles W. Tillinghast, msnbc.com president and publisher since 2004, will step down at the end of 2012.[3]
Contents |
History[edit]
The site was established as msnbc.com in 1996 at the same time as the MSNBC cable news channel; both of which were initially joint ventures with the software company Microsoft—the MSNBC channel was based in New Jersey, and msnbc.com was based at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. While NBC bought Microsoft's stake in MSNBC in 2005, msnbc.com remained a partnership between the two companies, and the two outlets remained relatively separate entities.[4] Msnbc.com also acquired several other news websites, including community-driven news site Newsvine in October 2007, and the hyperlocal news site EveryBlock in August 2009.
Despite sharing its name with the MSNBC channel, the content of the two outlets had become increasingly distinct. By 2010 the MSNBC channel had increasingly become more liberal in its content, while the msnbc.com site maintained nonpartisan news coverage. NBC's staff were concerned about the differences, as they were said to feel that readers may think that msnbc.com was directly affiliated with and shared the same views and perspectives as the MSNBC channel[citation needed]. 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.[4]
On July 14, 2012, NBC 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 the planned launch of a new website for MSNBC in 2013. Despite the separation of MSNBC and Microsoft, the site will still be a part of and receive traffic from Microsoft's MSN.com portal.[5][6]
Ranking[edit]
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 to Nielsen/NetRatings.[7] In second place was Yahoo! News with 35.8 million, then CNN 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.[8]
Content[edit]
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 including The New York Times.
A major focus is online content for the NBC News family of programming, including Today, NBC Nightly News, Dateline, Meet the Press, and programming on MSNBC television. This content includes behind 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 by MSNBC's Willie Geist. Original content from international correspondents and producers is posted on World News on NBCNews.com.
Video is distributed via the MSN Video service. Additionally, the website provides stock quotes through MSN Money, weather forecasts through Weather.com, RSS feeds, podcasts, and netcasts of the network's broadcasts. Following the introduction of CNN's iReport concept, NBCNews.com also introduced a citizen journalism section titled “First Person”. The section allows viewers to upload video, photos and stories in response to suggested topics.
Recognition[edit]
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,[9] Online News Association’s Online Journalism Award for General Excellence[10] and Best Use of Multiple Media;[10] National Press Club’s Best Journalism Site;[11] for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, “Rising from Ruin”, and the Best in Business Award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers[12] and Best Use of Multiple Media.[10]
Alumni[edit]
NBCNews.com boasts an array of former employees who went on to other leading positions in new media and journalism. Merrill Brown, the site's first editor-in-chief, was a senior vice president of RealNetworks before starting his own consultancy, MMB Media. Jonathan Dube, a former producer/reporter, left in 2005 to run the website of Canadian broadcaster CBC and is vice president of ABC News in charge of ABCNews.com. Brian Storm, the site's first multimedia director, left to run editorial operations at Corbis, and then founded a multimedia production house, MediaStorm. Steve Johnson, a former deputy news editor, ran the Associated Press web operations before helping founding Patch.com, a hyper-local new site in suburban New Jersey. Mark Pawlosky, former MSNBC executive producer, went on to be editor in chief of MSN Money/CNBC.com. He is now editorial director for American City Business Journals. Michael Moran, former international columnist and senior producer for special reports, led the remake of the Council on Foreign Relations website from 2005 to 2009 before joining Nouriel Roubini's RGE Monitor in mid-2009. Jeannette Walls, who wrote the site's "Scoop" entertainment column for eight years, wrote the book The Glass Castle. Joan Connell, former Opinions editor, runs the website of The Nation magazine. Frank Barbieri, a former interactive producer and business development specialist, now runs the mobile media company Transpera. .[13] Dean Wright, former editor-in-chief, ran Reuters Digital from 2005 to 2008 and is Reuters' senior vice president for consumer services. Michael Silberman, longtime managing editor/East Coast, is general manager of digital media at New York magazine.
References[edit]
- ^ http://www.nj.com/suburbannews/index.ssf/2012/10/gregory_gittrich_of_mountainsi.html
- ^ http://observer.com/2012/10/nbc-news-announces-executive-editors/
- ^ http://www.geekwire.com/2012/nbcnewscoms-top-exec-editor-exit-wake-msnbccom-transition/
- ^ a b Stelter, Brian (October 6, 2010). "MSNBC on the Web May Change Its Name". The New York Times.
- ^ Kurtz, Howard. "NBC, Microsoft Getting Online Divorce". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
- ^ "Microsoft and NBC to finally split: MSNBC.com to become NBCNews.com". MacDaily News. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
- ^ "Top 30 global news sites for May". Editor & Publisher. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^ "msnbc.com press release". GlobeNewswire. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^ "Dedman wins investigative reporting". MSNBC. April 14, 2008. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^ a b c "ONA 2006 Conference". October 7, 2006. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
- ^ "National Press Club Online". 2006. Archived from the original on June 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
- ^ "2006 Best in Business Winners Announced: Winner for Column REAL TIME News Organizations: Martin Wolk". Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27.
- ^ About Us Transpera. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
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