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| FILE - This Oct. 23, 2013 file photo shows TV host Katie Couric at the Somaly Mam Foundation Gala in New York. Couric is joining Yahoo to anchor a news program for the Internet company as it tries to expand its audience and sell more advertising. An announcement on Monday, Nov. 25, confirms recent published reports that Couric would diversify into online video programming after spending decades in broadcast television as a talk-show host and news anchor. The 56-year-old Couric will continue to host her daytime talk show, "Katie," on ABC even after she becomes Yahoo's "global anchor" beginning next year. |
SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) -- Katie Couric is joining Yahoo to anchor an expansion of the
Internet company's video news coverage in a move that she hopes will
help persuade other broadcast TV veterans to make the transition into
online programming.
Monday's announcement
confirms recent published reports that Couric is hoping to attract more
viewers on the Internet after spending the past 22 years working as a
talk-show host and news anchor at NBC, CBS and ABC.
"I
am particularly excited about hopefully attracting other people to this
platform and venture," Couric said in an interview with The Associated
Press. "We are in a major, transformative time in terms of media in this
country."
Couric's hiring is the latest coup
for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer as she brings in well-known journalists in
an effort to create compelling content that will attract more people to
the company's online services. In the past month, Yahoo has also lured
away technology columnist David Pogue and political reporter Matt Bai
from The New York Times.
Financial terms of
Couric's contract with Yahoo weren't disclosed. She also declined to say
how many more reporters will be added to her team at Yahoo.
Couric,
56, will continue to host her daytime talk show, "Katie," on ABC even
after she becomes Yahoo's "global anchor" beginning early next year. She
described her now role at Yahoo as a "work in progress."
"I
will be involved in developing a lot of concepts, but not necessarily
doing everything," Couric said. "I will be doing interviews, but not on a
daily basis. Probably monthly at this point."
The
Yahoo job appealed to Couric because it will give her an outlet to
delve into breaking developments around the world that she regularly
covered as the anchor of CBS' evening news from 2006 through 2011.
Mayer,
since leaving Google Inc. to become Yahoo's CEO 16 months ago, has been
trying to make Yahoo's services more alluring so people will visit them
on a regular basis and dwell for longer periods. In doing so, she is
hoping Yahoo will be able to sell more digital ads and boost the
Sunnyvale, Calif., company's revenue, which has been lagging the overall
growth of Internet marketing for years.
"News
is a definitive daily habit for our users, and Katie will work with our
talented editorial team to pioneer a new chapter of digital
journalism," Mayer said.
Yahoo already
operates the most popular online news section in the U.S. with 81.5
million visitors in October, according to the most recent data from the
research firm comScore Inc. The audience's size is roughly the same as
when Mayer became Yahoo's CEO. CNN ranks second in online news in the
U.S., with 70 million visitors.
Couric first became a household name as a co-host of the "Today" show on NBC from 1991 until she left to join CBS in 2006.
It remains unclear whether Couric's current talk show on ABC will be renewed after its run ends in May.
The
Walt Disney Co., which produces the show, and the owned and operated
stations that air the program haven't decided at this point, said Bill
Carroll, an expert on the syndication market for Katz Media. Couric also
said she is still trying to figure out whether she still wants to do
the talk show.
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