NYT: CBS will spend $10 million promoting new anchor, Katie Couric

[DeepModem Mom]

CBS Is All Katie, but Rivals Aren’t Standing By
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: August 20, 2006



To reintroduce Katie Couric to the country as a serious yet still accessible evening news anchor on Sept. 5, CBS has embarked on an image campaign worthy of a presidential candidate.

The network’s efforts will put her face on the front of every city bus in New York next month as part of a promotion that would cost in excess of $10 million if the national television commercials featuring her were bought by an outsider.

For all the maligning of the evening news as a dinosaur lurching toward extinction, the prize CBS is pursuing remains among the most lucrative and high-profile in television: the biggest share of the nearly 25 million viewers who still tune in to the three main news broadcasts each night, and the bulk of the nearly $400 million spent each year by advertisers trying to reach them....

***

Little wonder that CBS, which is paying Ms. Couric an estimated $15 million annually, has been convening focus groups at its research center in Las Vegas and other places to ask viewers such questions as how she will fare in a matchup against Mr. Williams, the leader in the Nielsen ratings, and Mr. Gibson, whose program is in second place....

***

Among the elements she hopes will set her program apart, she said, is the weeding out of the austere delivery she often detects among correspondents on CBS’s evening news program — and those of her rivals — in favor of a more relaxed approach....(S)he will assume that many viewers have already scanned the headlines of the day, giving her license to jettison some stories entirely or to dispense with others in a digest. Doing so, she said, could free up valuable time — no small thing in a broadcast that is actually 22 minutes — to add depth and context to those issues she deems worthy....Ms. Couric will give over as many as 90 seconds each night to a segment titled “Free Speech,” in which ordinary Americans, as well as scholars and sometimes even comedians, will be allowed to sound off. (Bob) Schieffer will deliver a weekly essay in this slot, probably on Wednesdays....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/us/20evening.html?hp&ex=1156046400&en=ba901118b83316c9&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[AX10]

1. May she sink like a rock.

[bahrbearian]

7. Or they can drop her like and Anchor,,,to the bottom.

[Solo_in_MD]

9. Hear Hear!!!!

[anitar1]

10. Couric

I second your hope. I have never liked her and can not watch a second rate entertainment Pug read the evening news. CBS is off my list. I did like Schieffer.

[IntiRaymi]

13. May she sink like an Anchor!

[Deja Q]

2. She's worth $10 million?!

:crazy:

[cyberpj]

3. she will jettison some stories entirely to add to those she deems worthy -

....(S)he will assume that many viewers have already scanned the headlines of the day, giving her license to jettison some stories entirely or to dispense with others in a digest. Doing so, she said, could free up valuable time — no small thing in a broadcast that is actually 22 minutes — to add depth and context to those issues she deems worthy....


Alrighty then!

The newsreader is now the news decider!

[Cha]

We'll decide if she's "serious" or

just some poor excuse for Dan Rather!

[cyberpj]

15. Alrighty then... the news reader is now the news decider!

Just had to kick this one again.

"I'm not worthy......."

[leftchick]

4. there is a term for this...

[otohara]

5. Sounds About Right

It's almost September, time to roll out the marketing plan!

At least they aren't making her dance on "Dancing With The Stars"!

[Botany]

6. Why don't they spend the money on getting good reporters

and putting a quality product out?

just like bush "the cowboy w/ the ranch"

Katie is now "the deep thinker."

[depakid]

8. And their viewrship will still fall

Let them spend hundred million. It won't matter, their crdibility is in the tank- and people (especially young people) are tuning out TV "news."

You can only lie, sensationalize and propagandize so long....

[IndianaGreen]

11. Let's see how she does against Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams

This NY Times story makes the reader think that Kouric is going to treat the anchor position as one of being an entertainer. If she does that, and if she brings the fluff for what she was known for on Today, then she will fail.

[Akim]

12. As Opposed to Establishing 1000 paid internships.

[Virginian]

14. I intend to watch and give her a chance.

Her sister was pretty big in the Virginia Democratic Party. I think Katie may also lean to the left, but was stiffled by NBC. In trying to appear non-partisian, she may have gone a little too far to the dark side.

She took Coulter to task when Coulter claimed that the media was librul. Here, at DU, we felt that Katie came out ahead on that one, but the GOP talking heads all claimed Coulter had wiped the floor with Katie.

The rest of you may hate her before she has a chance to show what she can do, but I am going to give her a chance.

[spanone]

16. It's not enough.

Her commercials where she wants to give 'perception' to the news makes me bristle. No spin Katie, just the facts.