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A Year Later ...

By Matthew Felling

September 5, 2007 / 3:40 PM EDT / CBS News

(CBS)

It's been one year for Katie Couric at the anchor desk of the "CBS Evening News."

And the media isn't hesitating at all to give her a letter grade, a progress report, some premature obits and some "stay the course"s to mark the occasion.

But nearly unanimous in all the coverage is the fact that CBS News apparently overshot its goal, choosing not only to install a new anchor and begin a new era, but also to use that occasion to redefine the entire concept of the network evening newscast – and therefore capture the younger audience.

And that it didn't work out.

That argument is most concisely put in today's New York Times piece commemorating the one-year mark:

A year ago Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, was intent on retooling the evening newscast to showcase Ms. Couric's sparkling personality, with the hope of attracting women and younger viewers. Now CBS News is seeking to tweak Ms. Couric's image to suit the expectations of its core audience.

And it's not just media conjecture. In yesterday's Los Angeles Times, Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports, said as much:

Sean McManus, president of the news division, said he has largely given up on luring in a different demographic.
"I really believed that it was possible if we did a different kind of newscast, that we could attract some newer and younger viewers," he said. "I didn't think we anticipated as well as we probably should have the resistance to change on the part of the viewing audience for the 6:30 newscast.
"At this point in history, it's probably not worth taking those chances," he added. "You're better off sticking to basics."

This view is echoed in the coverage in the Hollywood Reporter and Newsday, as well.

As for the future of the broadcast, Harvard University's Marvin Kalb told the Los Angeles Times that "The whole quality is beginning to pick up, and the rhythm and pace of the program says, 'This is a serious news program" – a notion backed by the weekly research of the Tyndall Report.

But what good is that if the ratings don't improve? The question now is how the "CBS Evening News" can regain its audience. One hopes that solid, daily reporting that makes news and provides critical information to the viewers will do the job -- coverage like that of Virginia Tech, the Minnesota bridge tragedy and this week's interview with President Bush. But unfortunately, the formula has never been so simple.