Don't Stop with Katie Couric

In light of the rumors about the CBS anchor, BW's Ronald Grover says the TV evening news model should go the way of the dodo bird

by Ron Grover

It's the latest parlor game among the brass at major networks: When will Katie Couric leave CBS? The rumor that the former Today show host turned CBS anchor was heading out the door has been getting better word of mouth than just about anything CBS has put on the air in the past year.

Is she leaving? Of course she is. And it may well be after the Presidential election, even though the public-relations department at CBS (CBS) has turned blue denying it. But there's a bigger question: Why do we need Couric—or Charlie Gibson or Brian Williams—to read us the news every night? Simply put, TV's evening news is a dinosaur that should go the way of the dodo bird.

O.K., out there: Raise your hand if you've caught any of the Big Three's evening news in the past year? I know I haven't. Like most folks I know, I'm not home when it airs at 6:30 p.m., and even if I was, I've already had my fill of news from Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), or the news alerts from the Washington Post that show up on my e-mail. There's a reason why only about 25 million folks get their news from the Big Three news readers each night, according to Nielsen. "It's appointment television in a world where no one gets their news by appointment any longer," says Brad Adgate, senior vice-president at advertising buyer Horizon Media.

No Savior in Couric

The TV networks will tell you there are reasons why they need a major-league star to read the news each night. For starters, there's the prestige of having someone to interview the President. Or to project the winner of the next election. The evening news still makes money—although less and less, from what I gather. That's because the network news audience is graying fast: The average age of those who watch Williams, Anderson, or Couric is pushing 61, and frankly, we know what happens when people get older: They start becoming fewer in number. With the younger viewers watching CNN or Fox News (NWS), or logging on to the Web for their news fix, the audience watching the Big Three has shrunk steadily for decades.

It's hard to blame Couric for the CBS news problems. Even if Walter Cronkite were to come out of retirement, sooner or later the evening news would be a goner. Couric's taking the heat now only because when CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves hired her two years ago, some figured her sunny disposition might single-handedly stem the tide of viewer defections. Of course, giving her $15 million a year through 2011 to pull off that magic trick only put a giant bull's-eye on her back. Yes, Couric's numbers initially jumped. But they've tanked since—and not coincidentally, so have those of her two competitors. (The three shows are currently running about 2% behind last year, with each of the three down.)

Time for a Change

So what do the network biggies do about the evening news? Well, they've started to make changes. All three shows replay their nightly news on their Web sites; Gibson does an early-afternoon, Web-only version; and ABC (DIS) and NBC (GE) have wireless shows on cell phones near you. That's a great start. But Gibson, who just turned 65, is going to retire one of these days. And Couric, well, she seems to be a short-timer. That gives the networks a chance to make even more dramatic changes in the not-too-distant future.