$75 MILLION DOLLARS!!!  That’s what CBS paid Katie Couric to anchor the CBS Evening News for five years.  Her contract is up in June and the rumor is they won’t offer her the anchor chair again.  This is no surprise to me in fact I was shocked she was offered the position in the first place.  Don’t get me wrong I think Katie Couric is a HUGE talent but she was destined to fail because that is not how she made her brand or what she does best.

Katie is a PERSONALITY.  Network News has never embraced a “personality” in the anchor chair.  The news is “delivered” as opposed to “presented.”  Jon Stewart makes a PRESENTATION of the news and does it very well but he has the right platform at Comedy Central.  The lesson here is simple:  NEVER DENY THE CHARACTER!  I’ve seen this mistake made in radio time and time again.  You can’t be someone you aren’t and be successful.  Listeners aren’t stupid.  They can sense when someone is not being “real.”  The best compliment an air-personality can receive is when someone says to them in public, “Wow…you’re just like you are on the radio.” 

Katie will bounce back and return to success because she will return to her brand and accept a position that EMBRACES her character.  I just wish I was paid $75 million to fail.  🙂