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Couric’s Move: Not Enough to Save Evening News

Amongst the media coverage of Katie Couric’s switch to CBS Evening News and Meredith Viera’s replacement of Couric on NBC’s Today show, the real sense of what the changes mean for network news - both in the short and long run - was lost, writes Mercury News.

 

Some TV traditionalists said Couric might lack the weight to take on the lead news role. Robert Zelnick - former ABC journalist and current head of Boston University’s journalism department - said the shift “reminds me of the move Barbara Walters made from The Today Show - where she was fabulously successful - to anchoring the evening news on ABC with Harry Reasoner, which turned out to be a less than successful move for ABC.’‘

Couric has received support from anchors Connie Chung, as well as Bob Schieffer and Walter Cronkite - two of the men who have worked as CBS’s sole anchor.

However, changing anchors may not be enough to reduce the negative effects cable and the internet have had on viewership of nightly news programs.

Gary Carr, a senior vp and director of national broadcast for media buying firm TargetCast, said, “Hiring Couric will create a lot of publicity and noise and maybe initially people will turn on CBS to see her. But I don’t see how this is the answer to the overall problem that network TV has, which is that it is not where people get their news anymore.’‘