When Time Warner Cable started NY1, the all-news channel dedicated to all things New York, the goal was to give subscribers a reason to remain loyal while providing a useful service.
But over two decades, the channel known for its earnest one-man-band coverage of stories across the five boroughs has become as much of a brand for the city as for the large media company that owns it.
When Hollywood needs a New York news anchor to move a plot forward — whether it involves a monster rampaging in the streets in “Cloverfield” or a delirious outcast from the North Pole in “Elf” — NY1 is often the go-to station.
So when word dribbled out that Time Warner executives met with newsroom staff members on Thursday to inform them that they were planning to change the station’s name to TWC News, there was intense, if predictable, criticism.
“This might be the stupidest media rebranding scheme I’ve ever heard of,” Seth Fletcher, a science writer who lives in Brooklyn, wrote in a Twitter post.
“Time Warner — rebranding NY1 into TWC News might be your dumbest move since merging with AOL,” was the opinion offered in a post by the band They Might Be Giants.
In a city where sports stadiums long ago succumbed to the lure of corporate naming rights and even the New York Public Library allowed a donor to inscribe his name on the marble facade of the flagship Fifth Avenue branch, the simple blue-and-white NY1 logo stood out for its seeming purity. And in a cable news arena full of shouting and loud graphics, the station is a refuge for many.
Well aware of how close many New Yorkers feel to the station, executives at both Time Warner and NY1 have not been surprised by the reaction.
“I think people are freaking out because they feel so possessive of NY1,” Steve Paulus, a senior vice president at NY1 who helped begin the station in 1992, said on Friday. “Viewers have a sense of ownership of this station that I have not seen anywhere else.”
Mr. Paulus wanted to assure those viewers that while the graphics might be updated, there were no plans to change the tone, quality or focus of the station. He also said the switch was in the early stages, so it was possible the NY1 logo would remain on the screen in some fashion.
“Where it is going to end up I am not sure,” he said. “But we do want to embrace Time Warner Cable News as a brand.”
The campaign comes amid competition for subscribers in New York City, especially since the rise of the FiOS service from Verizon.
“Our research shows that people who watch our stations, such as NY1, are loyal viewers, yet most people don’t understand their connection to Time Warner Cable,” the company said in a statement.
With 17 local news stations across the country, Time Warner executives said they wanted to establish more uniformity. But NY1, which reaches more than two million viewers, has worked hard to establish itself as part of the fabric of the city, and many in the newsroom are wary of doing anything to damage its reputation.
On Friday, the NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan referred to an article in The Daily News that first reported the rebranding campaign in his morning roundup of what is in the local papers.
“I want people to understand that this is a brand-name decision,” he said, “and not a change in content.”