NEWSWEEK COVER: Katie's News: Will She Shine at Night ... And Who Will Watch?

NEWSWEEK COVER: Katie's News: Will She Shine at Night ... And Who Will Watch?

While Wooing Katie Couric for Anchor Job, CBS Head Moonves Also Courted Meredith Vieira in Case Couric Declined

Mixed Reactions: 'They've Brought in an Aging Rockette,' Says One Ex-CBS Correspondent, 'The Negative Spin On Katie Is Unfair,' Says Another

NEW YORK, April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- CBS CEO Les Moonves was so intent on blowing up the traditional network news model that while he was courting Katie Couric for the anchor chair, he also pursued her "Today" successor, Meredith Vieira, in case Couric balked, report Senior Writers Marc Peyser and Johnnie L. Roberts in Newsweek's April 17 cover story, "Katie's News" (on newsstands Monday, April 10). "Clearly, we think it is time for a new kind of news," says a CBS executive. "I don't think evening news is dead. When you put people in like Katie, there is potential to grow. This is the first woman anchor. That might mean something."

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060409/NYSU007 )

Moonves courted Couric for months, first informally, over glasses of wine, then more assiduously when it became apparent that Couric would consider leaving "Today" after 15 years. NBC didn't let her go easily; they offered her close to $20 million a year and even Fridays and summers off, just like Johnny Carson. But they couldn't offer her Brian Williams's network-news chair -- he is No. 1, after all -- and in the end, the lure of history was too strong for Couric to resist.

On the day of Couric's announcement, CBS News president Sean McManus held a meeting with his staff to assure them that Couric won't preside over CBS News Lite. Reaction inside has been mixed. "In their efforts to bring in a younger audience, they hired a lot of good-looking women," says Bill McLaughlin, a former CBS correspondent who is now a professor at Quinnipiac College. "Their bench looks like the front line of the Ziegfield Follies, and now they've brought in an aging Rockette." Andy Rooney, "60 Minutes" resident crank, told Don Imus, "I think everybody likes Katie Couric -- I mean, how can you not like Katie Couric -- but I don't know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she's coming here." But Walter Cronkite and Bob Schieffer, whom Couric will replace, have praised Couric effusively, as have others. "I remember when CBS hired [former game-show host] Mike Wallace and gave him the morning news," says Marvin Kalb, a former CBS correspondent who is now a senior fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center. "You should have heard the men's room conversation. My god, what have they done? They destroyed the Murrow tradition -- all that. I think the negative spin on Katie is unfair, and I think she is going to prove those people wrong. So take that, Andy Rooney, and screw you."

Also in this week's cover package:
-- With the rise of two-income households and longer workdays, there are
fewer dinner hours in American households to provide a huge audience
for the news. The combined evening news audiences for CBS, ABC and NBC
(Fox Broadcasting doesn't offer network news) have plunged by half, to
fewer than 30 million from its 1969 peak. "The question is, can God
save the evening news?" says Jon Mandel of MediaCom, a top ad-service
agency. "Just look at what time it's on." But now, the broadcast news
industry is seeing the future. And guess what? It's not on the TV
screen. Instead, broadcast journalism is going multiplatform, reports
Senior Writer Johnnie L. Roberts. From iPods and cell phones to
laptops, NBC, ABC and CBS are digitizing their high-priced anchors and
correspondents to deliver news flashes by the byteful anywhere and
anytime to a mobile society.
-- As Katie Couric's time at "Today" came to a close, the media naturally
focused on a handful of younger claimants to her throne. But the new
host wouldn't be any of these younger aspirants. She would be Meredith
Vieira, who at 52 is older than even Couric herself. Some heralded the
move as a sign that TV news was perhaps getting past its obsession with
youth. But Vieira's elevation had more to do with pragmatism than
feminist politics. Top brass at NBC courted her because she was
seasoned, smooth and a lot like Couric, reports General Editor Jonathan
Darman.

(Read entire cover package at www.Newsweek.com)

The Katie Factor: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228724/site/newsweek/
Meredith's Moment: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228725/site/newsweek/

The Future of Evening News: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228773/site/newsweek/

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060409/NYSU007
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN1
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Newsweek

CONTACT: Andrea Faville of Newsweek, +1-212-445-4859

Web site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228724/site/newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228725/site/newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12228773/site/newsweek

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