NBC News Pres. On How #1 TV Broadcast Network Wants To Be #1 In Social Media Too

NBC News has enjoyed lengthy success with its flagship programs – the Today show, Nightly News and Meet The Press – all consistently #1 in their timeslots.

But now the network is shaking things up behind the scenes, with a new marketing strategy. Mediaite talked to NBC News President Steve Capus today about their new media push, changes in the industry, Fox News and more.

The announcement yesterday was NBC News would be combining its communications, marketing and promotion departments, to be headed by Lauren Kapp (“She’s terrific,” says Capus). “It’s all about the messaging,” Capus told Mediaite today. “If you think about it, there’s an awful lot of messages that come out of organization like ours every day – promotions, media relations, some in the form of sales and marketing presentations…It struck me that the most effective thing we could do is to have unified front and machine that is all working toward the same goals.”

Another change behind-the-scenes further launched the traditional media outlet into the new media world. NBC named Ryan Osborn (who has long run the @TodayShow Twitter feed) to a newly-created Director of Social Media position. Capus said it was “long overdue.” “I want us to go to where the eyeballs are,” he said. “People are getting their news off BlackBerrys, and I want to be in that space. People are finding out about breaking news, or are discussing the day’s headlines, through Twitter, then we want to be in that position as well.” (For those who would like to follow Capus on Twitter, he confirmed he won’t personally be joining.)

It was announced this week that NBC News (and MSNBC) were the winners of five Murrow Awards, more than any other news network. “We’ve built a news organization that is thriving at a time when the news profession is challenged in a lot of ways,” said Capus. ABC recently trimmed 25% of its news division, that was also described as a restructuring – doing more with less. Capus wouldn’t comment directly on ABC’s strategy, but said the idea the network has to adjust to a changing news landscape is something NBC has thought through as well. “I don’t want Nightly to look like YouTube at its worse, but you can’t deny that having a wired universe, with cameras everywhere, you have to be set up to capture that, in addition to the world-class work of talented, professional photographers who are here,” he said.

We also asked Capus what he thought of Fox News and some other outlets referring to MSNBC and their liberal hosts as “NBC News.” “You can see that for what it is,” he said. “Our audience clearly understands the difference between MSNBC and NBC. When someone makes those kind of claims you have to consider the source.”

—–
» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter.

Sign up for Mediaite's daily newsletter.