this washington post Last year, the paper was reportedly preparing to launch a new marketing campaign related to the U.S. Constitution until its leaders encountered a major problem: The banner had been taken.

The Washington Post is reportedly planning to launch a campaign aimed at conveying its ties to the United States through the slogan “We the People.” traffic light. But before the paper debuted its new ad, MS NOW aired the exact same idea.

MSNBC formal change On November 15, the company changed its name to My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, as part of Comcast’s rebranding after it divested its cable TV assets into a new company called Versant. The new company launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that included the slogan “We the People.”

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The Washington Post was reportedly set to launch a new marketing campaign last year until leaders at the paper ran into major problems. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

“MS NOW’s campaign and its massive budget forced The Washington Post to suspend its campaign,” Semafor reported.

The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A day earlier, Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis announced he was resigning amid widespread backlash over his handling of massive layoffs at the company.

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William Lewis, former publisher and CEO of The Washington Post. (Elliott O’Donovan writes for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Lewis drew backlash for his absence from Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray, who was tasked with announcing sweeping layoffs on Wednesday that affected a third of the staff. Lewis further fueled the backlash against him following his layoff. spot Thursday’s Super Bowl pregame event in San Francisco.

“After two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the perfect time for me to resign,” Lewis said in a memo to staff on Saturday. “During my tenure, we have made difficult decisions to ensure a sustainable future for The Washington Post so that it can deliver high-quality, nonpartisan journalism to millions of customers every day for many years to come.”

While the failure of the “We the People” slogan was just one blip in Lewis’s widely criticized tenure at the Post, Semafo noted that it highlighted the paper’s “lack of ability to think creatively.”

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The preamble to the U.S. Constitution begins with “We the People.”

“The paper’s new slogan was so unoriginal that another political news media company in need of a rebrand had the same idea, but executed it faster and with more investment,” Semafor wrote.

during an interview fox news numbers Before Lewis stepped down, Murray defended the way the job cuts had been handled.

“Will has been close to me on this for a long time,” Murray said of Lewis. “The company does a lot of things and Will is involved in the whole company and I’m not. He has a lot to do today.”

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Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.