MSNBC finally recognizes they have been hit by two torpedoes amidships. Now if they can only recognize they are taking on water...A change is going to come to MSNBC in 2015.
“Technology is continuing to drive unprecedented changes across the media landscape — and we all should be taking a hard, honest look at how we need to evolve along with it,” Phil Griffin, president of the NBC-owned cable news channel, wrote in a year-end message sent to employees Monday and reviewed by The Times.
Griffin noted that it was a tough year for cable news networks — Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC are all on track finish 2014 with a lower daily average audience than the previous year. Part of that has to do with the growth of broadband Internet service, which enables more news consumers to find video coverage online and through their mobile devices.
But Griffin acknowledged that MSNBC’s year was especially difficult, as it will finish third behind Fox News and CNN with viewers ages 25 to 54 — the demographic that advertisers target with news programming. Through Dec. 21, MSNBC averaged 169,000 prime-time viewers in the category, down 17% from 2013 and its worst performance since 2005. Fox News is averaging 302,000 for the year in the demographic, a 3% increase, while CNN is down 1% with 181,000. MSNBC is a distant second behind Fox News in overall viewers, but it’s down in that category as well.