Ms Couric has managed a 2 per cent increase in women age 18 to 49 since her September debut. However, that has been more than offset by an 11 per cent decline among men over 55, who still constitute the bulk of the evening news’ audience.
Couric's ratings on the CBS Evening News this month hit a 20 year low, pretty amazing when you consider she took over from Dan Rather.
As I have written before, here's the real deal. Every year there are new "men over 55" who used to be men under 55. They haven't been watching network news for years and nothing is going to change that. Years ago, I used to quip that the most frightening sentence in the English language was "More people get their news from ABC News than from any other source." But whether it's from ABC, NBC or CBS, more and more people of all ages are getting whatever news they do get from the many alternatives now available. Why wait for the local weatherman when you can click on the weather any time you want (or click on the Weather Channel on TV)? It doesn't matter who's selling your product if it's a product no longer in high demand because better alternatives exist, and that has nothing to do with Couric's gender or even her modest journalistic skills.
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