In his farewell note to staff, departing NBC News president Steve Capus writes, “I have much I hope to accomplish in the next phase of my career.” So, too, do the men and women vying to replace Capus. Capus says NBCU News group Chairman Pat Fili-Krushel “will be meeting with people throughout the division, and articulating her vision for the NBCUniversal News Group.”

There are strong internal candidates, some of whom, it has been announced by Fili-Krushel, will take on additional duties. Alex Wallace (above, right), who oversees “Today,” and “Rock Center” will now oversee “Nightly News,” where she was once EP. Wallace, who’s been with NBC since 2005, would be the first female news president after nine men have held the job since 1968.

Phil Griffin will likely be considered for the job. As president of MSNBC for the last 4 and a half years he has given the network an identity and boosted ratings, consistently topping CNN — a network his close friend Jeff Zucker now runs. A front office and internal concern would be the progressive programming on the network, often not in line with NBC News standards. Mark Hoffman, president of CNBC, cannot be ruled out. Nor can Capus’ deputy, Antoine Sanfuentes, (above, left) who will run day-to-day in the interim.

External candidates are also plentiful…

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• HLN is going all-out to cover the Jodi Arias trial in Arizona. “Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell” and “Nancy Grace” will both be dedicating their programming this week to the case, with Grace in Maricopa County, Arizona all week long.

• Fox Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino is profiled by Cigar Aficionado. Not surprisingly a good deal of talk is about cigars, but there is actually a media angle  to it. Sources love a good cigar after all…

• “60 Minutes” takes itself to task, and examines how the show helped prop up the myth of Lance Armstrong, before helping to dismantle it years later. ”We absolutely helped create the myth,” CBS News chairman Jeff Fager said. Watch after the jump.

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CBS News veteran Linda Mason–currently senior VP of standards and specials–is retiring, after 47 years with the company.

Inside CBS, Mason is regarded as a ground-breaker, who shattered the glass ceiling at the network in 1971, when she became the first female producer on the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.”

“There aren’t many people who have given so much of themselves to this organization,” wrote CBS news chairman Jeff Fager in an email to CBS staffers earlier this week.

Mason joined CBS in 1966 as a radio desk assistant, after a stint at The Providence Journal. She would work at WCBS and the “CBS Morning News” before joining the program anchored by Cronkite, and later Dan Rather. She eventually became EP of “CBS Sunday Morning” and of CBS’ weekend broadcasts before moving to special programming. She has also been the network’s representative to the  National Election Pool consortium.

As an executive, she led the internal investigation in 2000 that examined the mistakes in the network’s reporting of election night, and she was the CBS liaison on the 2004 report that looked into a piece on “60 Minutes Wednesday” about George W. Bush‘s National Guard service. She has held her current role since 2005.

She has also served as a mentor to staffers, particularly women, in a business that was once dominated by men.
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As disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong prepares to sit down with Oprah Winfrey tonight (the interview will air on OWN Thursday), the chairman of CBS News says that the network regrets that Armstrong didn’t sit with them instead.

“We wanted the Lance Armstrong interview badly. He chose to go with Oprah,” said Jeff Fager, who is also the executive producer of the iconic newsmagazine. Fager was speaking on a panel about “60 Minutes Sports” at the Television Critics Association Winter press tour in Pasadena.

Admittedly, CBS and Armstrong do not have the friendliest history. In 2011 Armstrong demanded an apology from the network for airing a story that suggested he was a cheat, which it now seems clear he was. Fager responded to the lawsuit by asserting that the reporting by “60 Minutes” was thorough and accurate.

“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Gayle King, who happens to be Oprah’s best friend, said this morning that the talk-show host has been “pulling all-nighters” in advance of the interview.

“And what I know about this story is that it all came together within the last week,” King said. “And Oprah spent this past week pulling what you did in college, all-nighters getting ready. So whatever Lance has to say, she is certainly prepared.”

CBS is going big for this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans February 3. As we have previously reported, every unit of the company will be represented, with four different sets in the city’s famous Jackson Square.

“CBS This Morning,” “Face the Nation” and the “CBS Evening News” will be live in New Orleans leading up to the game. TVNewser spoke to “Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley at the CBS Broadcast Center today, following a Super Bowl press conference.

Pelley says that the White House has yet to confirm the traditional pre-Super Bowl Presidential interview.

“I would be surprised if they didn’t take advantage of this remarkable opportunity for the President to speak to one third of the people of this country at one time,” Pelley said, noting that the interview “comes around like Christmas.”

“Every White House waits until the last minute, because you never know what is going to be on the President’s plate any given day,” added Pelley, who will do the honors if it comes together. Katie Couric interviewed Pres. Obama the last time CBS broadcast the Super Bowl in 2010.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves introduced the room to “CBS This Morning’s” Charlie Rose by gently ribbing him on his penchant for staying out late in the New York social scene:

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New York Times‘ David Carr profiles CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, who has spent his professional life bouncing between jobs in TV and in public service. Carr calls Miller, “a newsie by birth.” His father, John J. Miller, was a syndicated gossip columnist and often brought his son along on stories.

“I’ve been going to crime scenes since I was 9 years old,” Miller says. “It would not be unusual for me to see Sammy Davis Jr. at the Copacabana on Friday night and then be at the scene of a murder in Washington Square on Saturday night.”

At 14, Miller was skipping gym class at Montclair High School and getting assignments at WNYW-TV. After stints in local news he went to work for the NYPD, then back to news at ABC, then back to law enforcement with the FBI before deciding to get back in the TV game.

“My wife said to me, ‘Let me get this straight, you are going to leave a good, safe job in government and wander around New York in the worst economy in years looking for a job as a reporter? That’s your plan?’” he said.

It was. He talked to Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes.”

“He is the definition of a pure reporter,” Fager says, “a really great fit with what we are trying to do here. On the big stories, we don’t want packages, we don’t do graphics, we want information. I could listen to John Miller report a story all day.”

This morning CBS CEO Les Moonves participated in a  forum sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, a portion of that conversation focused on CBS News. Moonves talked about how happy he was with the current state of the news division, and how he viewed it as part of the company. In something of a throwback  Moonves said that while CBS News makes money, it is not primarily viewed as a profit engine, rather, it is part of the public interest.

“When you are a network, a public company like CBS, there is a public trust factor, and I take that really seriously. Our news division does an extraordinary job of providing a public service,” Moonves said. “You talk about how the early ratings were off this year, well, part of the reason is that we had four nights of debates, which pre-empted — God forbid — “Two and a Half Men,” and we took a hit.

We covered the election, and the election night returns were great, it doesn’t help the bottom line, but it is very important for the image of CBS, and our place in society,” Moonves added.

He noted that he was pleased with the diction the news division has been taking.

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“CBS Evening News” executive producer Pat Shevlin is the subject of a lengthy profile in the quarterly magazine of her alma mater, Wellesley College. Shevlin talks about her first glimmer of interest in the news business (after the assassination of John F. Kennedy), how she was hired at CBS (persistence helped) and her goal of being more accessible than previous “Evening News” EPs. The piece also details her relationship with the program’s anchor, Scott Pelley:

In the world of network evening news programs, all of which carry the name of the anchor, Scott Pelley and Pat Shevlin are twinned. CBS News chairman Jeff Fager named Scott Pelley anchor and paired Pat Shevlin with him. For Pelley, it’s a match made in collegial heaven. “We have just meshed perfectly. We share the same values, the same ideals,” he says. “I just cannot imagine a better partner to run this broadcast with. I really wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else.”

Shevlin has also helped him develop his anchoring skills. “She’s my coach,” he says. This is a new role for Pelley. He continues, “I’ve been a correspondent, but I never anchored a local newscast. She taught me how to do it.” More importantly, he says, “In the heat of battle, she’s a cool breeze; she calms everybody down, and calms me down.”

[Photo credit: Richard Howard/Wellesley magazine]

Longtime “60 Minutes” producer Michael Radutzky is taking on new responsibilities at The Eye. Radutzky will become executive producer of creative development at CBS News, while remaining as a senior producer on the CBS newsmagazine.

The creative development unit is a new unit at CBS News, and is “dedicated to finding innovative ways to create and distribute CBS News content.” In other words, looking beyond the traditional newscasts, and even traditional news websites.

“Michael is an extraordinary reporter and producer. So many of his stories during his years at 60 MINUTES stand out as some of our very best,” said CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” EP Jeff Fager in a statement. “In his new position, the rest of CBS News will benefit from his talents and abilities.”

More info below.

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CBS News and sister pay cable network Showtime are partnering on a new sports newsmagazine, “60 Minutes of Sports.” The program will air on Showtime, greatly bolstering the pay cabler’s sports news output.

The program will debut in November, with new editions airing monthly. Each episode will feature two new, original segments, one updated classic “60 Minutes” segment as well as a timely in-studio newsmaker interview. Correspondents from both “60 Minutes” and CBS Sports will participate in the program.

“This is an exciting opportunity for all of us at 60 Minutes,” said CBS News chairman and “60 Minutes” EP Jeff Fager, who will also EP the new program. “Our Showtime edition will offer the same high-quality, original reporting and great storytelling our viewers have come to expect every Sunday night on CBS.”

While Showtime has extensive sports programming, it has lacked a sports newmsazgine to call its own. HBO has been the longtime home of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” which routinely receives accolades for its strong reporting, while ESPN has “E:60.”

More information, below.

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