Historic news

Some call it historic. Some call it evolutionary. Some call it business as usual. Whatever you call it, Katie Couric’s long-anticipated anointing as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” represents yet another shift in the expanding landscape of network television news. “Today” star Couric, 49, will be the first woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast. She debuts in September.

“This business has been living in the dark ages for a long time,” says Connie Chung, 59, whose forced on-air marriage with Dan Rather on the “CBS Evening News” lasted just two teeth-clenching years, until 1995.

“I had always said I didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” Chung says. “That’s when I was still in the cave with the rest of them.”

Couric broke the news to “Today” viewers Wednesday, her 15th anniversary as co-anchor. She’ll stay with the top-rated morning show until her NBC contract expires May 31. (Meredith Vieira of “The View” will replace her.)

With a five-year, estimated $75 million deal at CBS, Couric will continue to be the highest-paid journalist on the planet. She’ll serve as managing editor of the “Evening News,” do pieces for “60 Minutes” and anchor prime-time specials.

Couric faces some heavy lifting at CBS. Though the “Evening News” has shown remarkable growth under interim anchor Bob Schieffer, who stepped in for the departed Dan Rather 13 months ago, it still ranks a distant third behind “NBC Nightly News” and “ABC World News Tonight.”

ABC’s Barbara Walters (also a “Today” alum) broke the anchor gender barrier in 1976, joining crusty Harry Reasoner in two years of open warfare. Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff debuted as co-anchors of “ABC World News Tonight” in January; Woodruff has since been sidelined by injuries suffered while reporting from Iraq.

Judy Woodruff, formerly an anchor at CNN and PBS, labels Couric’s ascent to the CBS anchor chair as “a logical evolution of events.”

To Alex Jones, director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Couric “was the best prospect they had. I regard her, at her core, as a serious news person.”

Still, some question whether Couric has the chops to make the transition from morning TV – where one can fry an omelet and interview the secretary of state in consecutive segments – to the rarified atmosphere of Big Three anchordom. (Ex-“Today” host Tom Brokaw did it at NBC.)

“The fear of the naysayers is that Katie spent so much time doing cooking segments and having her colon looked at, no one will take her seriously when she’s reporting on bombings in Baghdad,” says network-news analyst Andrew Tyndall.

Still, few, including Tyndall, question Couric’s journalistic skills – particularly her strength as an interviewer.

In Tyndall’s view, Couric’s presence will be felt more at “60 Minutes” because it plays to her strengths: interviewing and the ability to wrangle hard-to-get subjects.

That she’s emotionally accessible to viewers is a big plus, according to former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.

“You need the evening news anchor to be both credible and relatable. She combines both beautifully,” says Heyward, who, with CBS Corp. kingpin Leslie Moonves, ardently wooed Couric.

“Even though she’s obviously a superstar, you get the sense that she wrestles with some of the same problems everybody does – she’s raising children, she’s capable of having a bad hair day, she’s had tragedy in her life. She’s a real person, and that comes through.”

Couric lost her husband, attorney Jay Monahan, to cancer in 1998. She is raising their young daughters, Elinor and Caroline.

The New York Times reported that 10-year-old Carrie told her mom at a family meeting that she should choose CBS, because that would make her “the first woman in that job by herself.”

“Gravitas” is a term that has been used liberally in Couric discussions. Her critics say she doesn’t have enough of it to be believed during a crisis such as 9/11; her supporters say it would be a non-issue if she were male.

“Gravitas is sexist code for ‘should be a man,’ ” says Woodruff. “Katie has more than demonstrated the ability to handle hard news. She’s done it all, from the sublime to the ridiculous. There’s no question that she’s qualified.”