News Boss in Town NBC News president Steve Capus plans to keep his net on top.
NBC News president Steve Capus
Back in 1997,
Steve Capus was executive producer of
The News with Brian Williams, the prime-time flagship newscast of NBC's fledgling cable news channel MSNBC. At the end of each broadcast, the show's staff often had the same thought: Is anybody out there? Nearly a decade later
Williams is seen by 10 million viewers of
NBC Nightly News, where he has finished his first year as anchor and where Capus also served as executive producer. On Tuesday Capus, 42, was named president of NBC News after filling the role on an interim basis when
Neal Shapiro departed in September. While NBC struggles in prime time, under Capus' watch it has remained the leader in the evening news and in the morning, with a resurgent
Today show. Now that his job is permanent, Capus talked with The Biz about the challenges ahead.
TVGuide.com: Congratulations on passing the audition. What do you think made this happen?
Capus: When (NBC Universal Television Group president) Jeff Zucker asked me to take on the interim role, Jeff told me — and I made the decision — to just run with the job and assume it was mine until they told me it wasn't. I worked awfully hard at it. I wasn't fixated on it. I just figured I would do the job, and if it was going to happen, great. If not, that's OK, too. This company has been very good to me all the way along, and I'm just thrilled.
TVGuide.com: It had to help that nothing went wrong while you were in charge. NBC News has had a pretty good run lately.
Capus: We had a good run with our Katrina coverage. This is a news division that is very strong. We have a leadership responsibility in that role. We're going to take that leadership role seriously, but we're also going to push NBC News into new areas and evolve the division. The mandate is to make sure all of the hard work throughout the division is seen by as many people as possible on as many different platforms as possible. I've spent most of my time on how we can be better situated for the new world order in media.
TVGuide.com: Brian Williams has emerged as the leading network news anchor, and you were his copilot for a long time. Has that helped you?
Capus: Brian and I have a great partnership. There were some long days and nights in Secaucus, N.J., when we were producing the cable show. It was hard to know if anybody was paying any attention on some days. [Now] both of us feel great. I am so proud of what Brian has accomplished in the last year. He has handled that job beautifully. There is so much that goes along with being the anchor of Nightly News. He's done the job well in front of the camera and behind the scenes, and I couldn't be happier for him. He's been a huge supporter, and I'm very fortunate to have him on my side.
TVGuide.com: What do you think is distinguishing NBC from the news divisions at CBS and ABC, which really seem to have a lot of problems to dig out of?
Capus: This is the company that respects and supports the work of journalists. A lot of people said the Katrina coverage on NBC was unmatched. I would say part of the reason was that we had the resources to do the job right. You saw the small army we sent into that storm. This news division is a priority for NBC. That really helps.
TVGuide.com: That may not be the case at the other places?
Capus: Yeah. I think there have been some questions raised about that. I'll let them worry about their own issues. But I do think that's one of the things that differentiate us.
TVGuide.com: MSNBC is considered a problem from a business standpoint, but journalistically, its existence is still an advantage for NBC News, isn't it?
Capus: Of course. MSNBC was a very strong play when we established it. It was two-pronged: One [part] was cable; one was the Internet. I don't think people focus on the truly remarkable success story of MSNBC.com. It's the No. 1 news and information site more often than not. None of our competitors has anything close to what we've got online. We do battle against Yahoo for the No. 1 position. It's a great platform for reporting for MSNBC news.... While a lot of people like to define the channel by its ratings, there are a lot of ways we measure success. It has made the news division stronger. We are in the game 24/7. I think that gives us an advantage over the other guys…. Look at some of the people who've come out of MSNBC and are our marquee players. Whether it's David Gregory or Campbell Brown or Natalie Morales. Brian Williams. Ann Curry was over there, too.
TVGuide.com: What's the biggest challenge in terms of programming MSNBC? How are you going to make the ratings improve?
Capus: It's quietly made some gains of late, especially in prime time. We're happy about that — but we're not satisfied. We're going to keep pushing. I think there have been some questions about the overall definition of the channel. That's probably still the biggest challenge.
TVGuide.com: Is a name change under consideration?
Capus: Yeah, we're thinking about it. I'm not sure whether that makes sense or not. I don't want to lose sight of the fact that MSNBC.com is such a successful business. Does anybody in America know what ESPN stands for? But you know what it means.
TVGuide.com: What do you think your chances are of keeping Katie Couric at the network?
Capus: I'm not going to speculate about our chances. All I would say is her deal is up some time in the spring. We're obviously focused on it. We think Katie does a terrific job on the Today show and is an important part of that team. Let's see how it goes. I don't want to make predictions on whether we succeed or not.
