While msnbc.com remained a traditional, nonpartisan news service with its own staff of journalists, the MSNBC channel now primarily carried liberal-leaning opinion-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.

[4][5][6] 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 msnbc.com in October 2012, and began to sharply reduce the news staff, pulling back from doing original journalism online.

On February 5, 2014, a major redesign of NBCNews.com was introduced; NBC News president Deborah 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.

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."

[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 including The New York Times.

Additionally, the website provides stock quotes through MSN Money, weather forecasts through Weather.com, RSS feeds, podcasts, and netcasts of the network's broadcasts.

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".