BEIJING,
Sept. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The popular host of NBC's Today show will take
over Tuesday evening as anchor of CBS Evening News.
Katie Couric, who has worked at NBC for 15
years, becomes America's first female solo anchor of a major television
network evening newscast.
As one of the country's highest paid anchors --
at 15 million U.S. dollars per year, Couric has stirred intense scrutiny and
speculation with her move.
"With all the attention given to not just us, but
Charlie [Gibson] and Brian [Williams], I think there's been more written about
this time period in the last three months than probably in history," said CBS
News President Sean McManus.
In order to gear up the viewership in the hot
competition, the three major U.S. newscasts -- ABC, NBC, CBS -- all play out at
online.
In August, Couric told USA TODAY she plans to
contribute to an online blog and will experiment with the News format, adding a
daily opinion segment, including Schieffer on Wednesdays. NBC's Williams, a
veteran blogger, recently began filing a new video blog every morning. ABC's
Gibson does a top-rated podcast every afternoon.
All three broadcasts regularly post video online so
that viewers can access on demand, creating their own news program. Couric's
joining in the CBS brings much expectation.
"CBS is really poised to leapfrog ahead with their
newscast on the Web if they want to. If there's one thing we know about American
culture, it's that nothing helps you sell a product better than free media.
(ABC's) Charlie (Gibson) and Brian just can't compete with the attention she
(Couric)'s getting," said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in
Journalism.
Besides Tuesday's newscast, Couric is scheduled to
interview President George Bush at the White House on Wednesday for a prime-time
special, and her first "60 Minutes" report about the toxic fallout from the
World Trade Center collapse is set for Sunday, according to Seattle Post
Intelligencer. Enditem
(Agencies)
