Stephen Allan "Steve" Capus (born October 4, 1963) is a news executive, producter, and journalist. He has been president of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...
since January 2024. Previously, he was an Executive Editor of CBS News.
He is the former president of
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...
.
Early life and career
Steve Capus was born in 1963, the son of Jean and Paul Capus.
His mother is a teacher's aide; his father is a district manager for a dental supply company.
He graduated from
William Tennent High School in
Warminster, Pennsylvania, and went on to attend
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1986. Capus began his journalism career in radio and print, working at several stations and daily newspapers in the Philadelphia area. Capus was a director at WCSD-FM, a nonprofit community radio station in Warminster, in the early 1980s. He worked at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia in 1986, and became an executive producer with KYW-TV in Philadelphia in 1990.
Capus moved to Charlotte, N.C. in 1993, joining the NBC News team as the senior producer of ''
NBC Nightside
''NBC Nightside'' (also known as ''NBC News Nightside'') is an American graveyard slot, overnight 24-hour news cycle, rolling newscast that aired on NBC from 1991 to 1998. The program was produced in three half-hour segments. It usually aired li ...
'', an overnight news program.
Capus then continued his career with NBC in Manhattan. During this time, he was the broadcast producer of ''NBC News Sunrise'' and then the supervising producer for ''Today''. From 1997 to May 2001, Capus was the executive producer of MSNBC's ''
The News with Brian Williams''. He was also the executive producer of numerous NBC News breaking reports and MSNBC special broadcasts. Among them were the 2000 presidential primaries and election, the “Summit in Silicon Valley” with
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of Today (American TV program), ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anch ...
and the political series ''100 Days, 1000 Voices''.
Capus was the executive producer of ''NBC Nightly News'' from May 2001 to June 2005. During this time, Capus was the executive producer for NBC News' coverage of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, the war in Iraq, and the "Decision 2002-2004" political coverage.
Capus was then promoted to senior vice president of NBC News, where he led the network news division, was executive in charge of MSNBC, MSNBC and NBCNEWS.com digital and mobile properties, and NBC News radio.
Capus served as a member of the following boards: NBC/Microsoft Joint Venture, The Weather Channel and weather.com, and The Newseum in Washington, DC.
President of NBC News
In November 2005, Capus was named president of NBC News. Capus has served as the arbiter of issues involving ethics, style, standards, safety and other matters that affected the Division's journalistic bearing. Capus reported to Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBC Universal.
Capus announced February 1, 2013, that he was leaving the network.
Steve Capus joined
IESE Business School
IESE Business School is the Catholic Church, Catholic graduate business school of the University of Navarra. It was established in Barcelona in 1958 by Opus Dei. From 1963, in collaboration with Harvard Business School, it offers a two-year Maste ...
as Executive in Residence, to share his expertise
Steve Capus started a blogin January 2014 with stories and analysis about entrepreneurs, leadership, communications, journalism, politics, transformation, innovation, The Digital Revolution and big ideas.
CBS News
On May 6, 2014, CBS News announced that Capus would join the Network as Executive Editor of CBS News and Executive Producer of the ''CBS Evening News''. He was dismissed of those duties on January 23, 2018, and replaced in that capacity by
Mosheh Oinounou.
CBS News Chairman
Jeff Fager lauded Capus as a successful journalist and news manager and said that “he is a real pro with an extraordinary record, and we are fortunate to have him joining us at CBS News.”
In the announcement, CBS News President
David Rhodes said that “Steve will make the ''Evening News'' more competitive than ever and will make our management team stronger than ever.”
RFE/RL
Stephen Capus has served as
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...
’s (RFE/RL) President since January 1, 2024. Prior to his appointment, Capus offered strategic and managerial consultation to th
President of RFE/RL and advised senior management on a number of projects related to the 24/7 Russian-language digital network Current Time, as well as the new Russian language multi-platform content offering Votvot.
Personal life
In 1996, he married former NBC News producer Sophia Faskianos in a
Greek Orthodox
Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...
ceremony in
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,741 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous city in the New Hampshire Seacoast Region (New Hampshire), Seacoast region and ...
.
He has three children.
Awards
* 2004
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Awards, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was e ...
for Television Short Form business journalism for "The Jobless Recovery"
References
External links
NBC News announcement of Steve Capus's promotion to presidentNBC Executive bio of Steve Capus*
CBS News bio of Steve Capus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capus, Steve
Temple University alumni
Living people
NBC executives
1963 births
Gerald Loeb Award winners for Television
Presidents of NBC News