Even if you’re a casual consumer of MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, you know the names: anchors like Chris Hayes, Stephanie Ruhl, and yes, the one and only Rachel Maddow. The network has built a stable of talent who’ve amassed a massive number of casual viewers, plenty of fans … and more than a few obsessives.
Now, the network’s president, Rebecca Kutler, is looking to build that entire audience into something more akin to a fandom—turning casual viewers and fanatics alike, whether on TV or online, into paying members of an MS NOW media universe.
To do it, she’s launching an ambitious subscription program, called Membership, designed to connect MS NOW consumers much more directly to the Hayeses and Maddows of the world. Sure, plenty of news providers now offer subscriptions, WIRED included (and by the way, you can subscribe here). But what struck me about Kutler and Co.’s efforts was both their methodical approach—they surveyed 18,000 people before landing on a final offering—and their resolute focus on MS NOW’s deep bench of talent as the locus of their paid program. In a world where influencers are the new newscasters, and linear TV is in an inevitable decline, MS NOW is diving directly into the breach: applying the influencer playbook to build a sustainable business that’s future-proofed … at least until the next great audience pivot.
I caught up with Kutler at WIRED’s New York studios, just days before MS NOW’s subscription launch. We talked about turning TV talent into fandom magnets, beating Fox, and whether media consolidation is actually good news for the network.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Rebecca, thank you so much for being here today. Start by telling me when you joined MSNBC. What’s the timeline?
REBECCA KUTLER: I think it was right before the midterms in 2022. I had grown up at CNN. I spent more than 20 years there. I left earlier in 2022, and some folks that I knew and really respected reached out from then MSNBC, and they talked about one of those jobs that has a lot of running room and is a little ambiguous, but in the best way. I thought, “Yeah, let’s check it out.” I started at MSNBC, now MS NOW, running their digital businesses, basically all their nonlinear businesses.
It gave me a real opportunity to learn the place, but also think about what are the missed opportunities that we could take advantage of in the next few years.
At some point in your tenure, you took on the whole thing.
Yes.
What were those big challenges that you identified when you looked at the whole portfolio and thought to yourself, “What are we going to do here?”
One of the things that immediately struck me when I came over was the fandom.
I had worked in other newsrooms. I have friends who work in other newsrooms. I love the news and love what we do, but I had never worked at a place where the audience really sees themselves as fans, with a deep connection to talent.
When I joined MS, it was also at the same time Jen Psaki joined, and we had known each other a little from a previous life. So we went out into the field together and did a few pretty straightforward field reporting pieces. And I’ve walked through airports over my career with a lot of different anchors and newspeople, but I’ve never had the experience of walking through with Jen and seeing the [attention she got]. That’s why she was a great fit for MS. She’s someone people were behind and were rooting for, and had a deep connection with.