On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 11:35 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> For whatever reason, she gave an interview to AdAge about the move to > Yahoo: > > http://adage.com/article/digital/katie-couric-yahoo/245428/ > > If memory serves, she was not the managing editor or news director of CBS > news, just the fluff who read off a teleprompter. I get that very few have > risen to the level of network news anchor, but if she wasn't qualified to > oversee a news gathering organization before, what has changed to make it > seem as though she is qualified to basically create one from scratch? I can > think of six people better suited to such a task, three of them women. To > me, this seems like little more than a publicity stunt to call attention to > Yahoo's attempt to build a news service -- once they've cashed in on > whatever name value she might provide, they'll shove her to the side and > bring in qualified talent. > Katie was managing editor of "CBS Evening News", as is now Scott Pelley. And it was more than just a vanity title - as Managing Editor she came to that broadcast intent on transforming network evening news shows into something other than just the reporting of the day's events. This was the "Katie-Cast", and it brought her concern with family and lifestyle issues, upbeat stories and, I guess, youtube videos of kittens, along with a focus on longer (5 to 8 minute) interviews, which supposedly are her strength. She also took a lot of obvious delight in doing a blog, which I suspect she had a much more direct role in producing than, say Will McAvoy does. But she was not the dictator of CBS Evening News, and when it became clear the Katie-cast was tanking, her bosses made her go back to a more traditional format. Yahoo already has a news division, and I don't think it is quite true that Katie is being asked to create one from scratch. This CNET piece does what I think is a good job of putting the Yahoo-Katie marriage in the right perspective: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57613681-93/katie-couric-and-yahoo-a-marriage-of-convenience/ An excerpt: "But for Yahoo and Couric, pioneering a new chapter of digital journalism won't be about embracing new forms of interactive storytelling and funding news bureaus around the globe. It's about competing with traditional television and for advertising dollars. You can understand the personnel decision as part of a bigger ambition to transform Yahoo -- if not the Internet -- from being a second screen into the main screen even though it would offer much the same news and entertainment content as before. Couric is expected to anchor a news program on Yahoo with interviews of major players and coverage of breaking news events. That's the exact same role she filled in most of her previous broadcast network jobs." -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
