Say Goodbye to Katie?

UPDATE: Crain's New York Business says CBS denies the story. You pays yer money and takes yer chances...  :-)

There are reports all over the media - online and off - that Katie Couric will be leaving the CBS Evening News, possibly after the inauguration next year, perhaps sooner, depending on whom you're reading.

There's not much of a surprise here. As everyone except Rip Van Winkle knows, Katie Couric was brought in by CBS - at a huge salary - to try to rescue the sinking CBS Evening News. The experiment has failed, and that's putting it mildly.

In fairness to Katie Couric, I'm not sure anybody could have done better than she did. The trouble is, they're trying to revive a dinosaur. Speaking as a person who spent more than a dozen years working on one of the network newscasts (not CBS), the days of the 30-minute-wrapup-at-dinnertime are over. People do not wait until 6:30 or 7 at night to find out what has happened during the day - not given the virtually limitless sources of news online, not to mention the 24-hour cable news operations. Whether you get your spin from CNN or Fox, you know what has happened long before the old network news comes on.

So - if the rumors are true - wish Katie Couric well. And suggest that perhaps it's time for CBS - and ABC and NBC - to figure out a better way to use the time. Investigative reporting? Maybe. But the old ways aren't working. Katie Couric is as much the victim of that fact as she is a symbol of it.

Hat tip: Shop Talk/TVSpy (with LOTS of links to more articles)