Steve Capus Exiting NBC News

President had led news division since 2005

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/1/2013 12:27:55 PM

NBC News president Steve Capus will depart the news division in the coming weeks, he said in a memo to staff on Friday.

"It has been a privilege to have spent two decades here, but it is now time to head in a new direction," he said. "I have informed Pat Fili-Krushel that I will be leaving NBC News in the coming weeks." 

Capus has led NBC News since 2005, where he oversaw the network news division as well as MSNBC and NBCNews.com. He indicated Friday that he would take a break in the short-term, but that "Journalism is, indeed, a noble calling, and I have much I hope to accomplish in the next phase of my career. "

His exit comes after Fili-Krushel was put in charge of all of NBCUniversal's news properties six months ago in a restructuring that had Capus report to her instead of NBCU CEO Steve Burke.

Fili-Krushel will begin a search for his successor in the coming weeks, with Antoine Sanfuentes and Alex Wallace taking over Capus' responsibilities on an interim basis.

"Steve has been a friend, boss and mentor to a great many people at NBC News for a long time and we will all miss him very much," Fili-Krushel said in an internal memo also sent Friday.

Capus is a 20-year veteran of NBC News, and has served as supervising producer of the Today show and executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams during his tenure.

He was recently considered to be a candidate for the top job at CNN Worldwide, which eventually went to his former NBCU boss Jeff Zucker.

Capus' exit comes at a time of significant turnover in the news business. At eight years, his was the longest tenure of any current network news president, with ABC's Ben Sherwood coming on in late 2010 and CBS' Jeff Fager installed in early 2011.

In the last two years, Capus oversaw NBC News as it went through its own turmoil with its most profitable asset, the Today show, which saw Good Morning America end its 16-year morning win streak last April as well as the unsuccessful anchor transition from Meredith Vieira to Ann Curry and then Curry to Savannah Guthrie.