I realize it’s only about money. The $15-million-per-year Katie Couric will anchor CBS News’ evening headlines program, and CBS figures her presence will pay for itself and more.
She’s a talented journalist, to be sure. But her hiring is so, well, 20th Century. CBS is competing for something that is disappearing. I’d have put the money the future of the news: namely the variety of platforms the network needs to understand and the audiences it needs to serve and involve.
An opportunity lost…
on Apr 8th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
As someone who worked in TV newsrooms for more than 20 years, I wholeheartedly agree. Giving Couric, or any other anchor – male or female – that kind of money is ridiculous in light of the erosion of network news viewership. Gillmor is right on the mark: take the money and do something groundbreaking, you know, something that respects the viewers – and engages them. Guess what? It might just appeal to the very demographic that rarely watches CBS or other nightly newscasts. More on Citizen Journalism here: http://www.nextnews.org