MS NOW anchors Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle. Ralph Bavaro/MSNBC The clock is ticking on MSNBC. On Saturday Nov. 15, the cable channel will officially rebrand, losing its NBC name and iconography, and debuting its new MS NOW title, look and tagline: "Same Mission. New Name." With Versant set to spin out from NBCUniversal next year, the NBC name and peacock has to go (CNBC will keep its name for now). Rebecca Kutler, the president of MS NOW, has spent months building an entire news division to prepare for this moment, cutting deals with partners to fill in gaps, and building out a digital gameplan for when the switch gets made. Related Stories Business Inside Netflix House: A Big Bet On Experiential Entertainment Business Media's Rebranding Frenzy: What's In a Name? In MS NOW's temporary Times Square offices (Versant executives affectionately call it "Summer Camp" to underscore its temporary nature), The Hollywood Reporter sat down with four of the channel's most familiar faces: The 11th Hour host Stephanie Ruhle, Velshi host Ali Velshi, Katy Tur Reports anchor Katy Tur, and senior enterprise reporter Brandy Zadrozny, to discuss the rebrand, the new remit, the pluses and minuses of being free from a larger corporate parent, and how they see digital being a part of how they tell stories going forward. As it happens, Ali Velshi will be the last anchor out the door, and the first one in the door: He is scheduled to shut down the MSNBC studios in 30 Rock Friday night when he guest hosts The Last Word, and will officially launch MS NOW's new studios in Times Square Saturday morning. Team MS NOW: Stephanie Ruhle, Katy Tur, Ali Velshi and Brandy Zadrozny. Craig Barritt/Getty Images; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; Rob Kim/Getty Images; Courtesy MSNBC I wanted to start by asking about the rebranding, going from MSNBC to MS NOW. I'm curious to get your thoughts as journalists that are the face of the channel in a lot of ways, and the people that viewers most associate with the channel and the company, what did you first think when you first heard about it, and what in your mind are the biggest challenges and biggest opportunities associated with kind of transforming the MSNBC brand into MS NOW? Katy Tur: I think we were all disappointed when we heard it, because we were told that the name was going to stay. So I think it took a little bit of getting used to and understanding how it was going to work. Now, listen, I think we live in a new world. It's not linear TV any longer. It's not like you're going to be going flipping through channels and looking for MSNBC and seeing MS NOW, and not knowing what that is, you are already going to be favoring this on whatever app you're using. If you are going through your cable channels, we've been advertising it a lot. I think the brand is more associated with us than it is the name. I think if you see Rachel [Maddow], you see Chris [Hayes], you see Jen [Psaki], Nicole [Wallace], Ali [Velshi], Brandy [Zadrozny], me, you'll know it's MSNBC, regardless of what the new name is. We have the MS in the beginning of it. I think it'll be easier to do this now, as the world is changing and as people are changing the way they access media, than it would have been 10 years ago. Ali Velshi: I've always been involved somewhere where the issue was channel placement. Back in the days, I remember CNNfn [CNN's defunct business channel] was really concerned that they were not going to be next to CNBC, because it numerically mattered. And now nobody knows what number any channel is, and in three years, even the MS part won't matter anymore. Everyone I've met - viewers who I see - knows there's a change. Tur: They are looking for Ali Velshi Reports. Velshi: Correct, you're exactly right. Not anyone has said to me, wow, that's weird, it's a weird name, nobody seems to care. I also don't really care, because the work we do is so sort of intensive, and we're so in it, we kind of all know what we do. I get it, I liked saying MSNBC more, but I kind of do like the perceived independence of what we do now, given the world that we're in, given the exact world that we're in right now where the ability to argue that you are an independent journalist, but your work for corporate media gets tougher. I'm not actually minding the name that nobody has gotten used to yet. Tur: Yeah, it's not like you're seeing Versant in the headlines the way you're seeing other corporate names. Brandi Zadrozny: I used to work at The Daily Beast where we had to be like, "B, E, A, S, T, no, I didn't name it. Now, tell me the story." The story is what matters. Your brand is what matters. So many news organizations don't want - it's like a dirty word in journalism - us to have brands as journalists, but I think it's completely effective, and I think it builds trust. And I think that's why we have it here. Stephanie Ruhle: For me, it's not MS NOW, it's MS WOW. No, it's only because [Ali's] here, I can't help myself. I was surprised when I