Tony Maciulis, Producer, CBS News

Tony Maciulis is the young man with the infectious smile and seemingly boundless energy who is most responsible for bringing Katie Couric to the Web-centric masses. It is through Maciulis’ work that Couric’s interviews and behind-the-scenes features are viewed millions of times online.


Maciulis believes that Couric’s desire to make her program more interactive is a great fit for his Web-savvy approach. “We just instantly clicked,” he says of Couric. “It was just like a Vulcan mind meld.”


Maciulis, 33, came to CBSNews.com in 2007 to host Irregularly Scheduled Programming, an irreverent Web-only take on some of the more quirky news stories of the day. Prior to that, he spent time as a senior producer and on-air contributor for MSNBC, covering elections and the 2004 and 2006 Olympics. He started his career as a freelance correspondent for NPR’s On the Media, after earning a degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and receiving the prestigious CBS/Fred Friendly Prize in 1999.

Since joining the Evening News team, Maciulis has developed Couric’s Twitter and Facebook sites (though the anchor Tweets for herself), and was instrumental in developing the @katiecouric Web show as well as the anchor’s social media chats. The idea to give Couric more of an online presence came about after Maciulis realized, “I was dealing with a person that America wasn’t getting to know the way that I knew her.”

Maciulis believes all journalism should have an online component. “There is a Zeitgeist here,” he says, discussing the future of cross-platform journalism. “The train has left the station, and we need to get on it.”

At Columbia, Maciulis also performed in theater and was VP of his class. “I was the party thrower,” he jokes, and refers to himself as “such a joiner” when it came to extracurricular clubs and activities. It’s precisely this inclusive personality that makes the man such a vibrant presence at the Evening News.

“You’ve got to love it,” Maciulis says of his job. “You’ve got to get in there and really want to make it work.”