September 05, 2006

All Katie, all the time

On the eve of the unveiling of the new face of CBS news, I thought I'd add my real 2 cents on the whole Katie Couric Photoshop controversy of last week.

After the Live at 5 camera's were gone from Razor HQ, I really got thinking about the whole thing from a marketing perspective. It just seemed a little too fishy to me for some reason. Could that whole thing have been staged by CBS to generate publicity around the launch of all this? I mean come on, someone had to have leaked the original "fat" photo to the world. Could the big-wigs at CBS be that smart? Hmmmmm...

To me, it sounds so crazy that it might just be true.

In the meantime, here's an interesting article on the "Brand of Katie Couric".

On that note, I am actually looking forward to seeing how she does and how the revamped format looks. I think network news is in need of a facelift. It's time to make the next move in its natural progression. The days of crotchety old anchors delivering the news with furrowed brows in deep baritone voices are over. That style of news should die and join its direct decendant: anchor reading his news from big sheets of paper, cigarette burning in the ashtray next to him (with typewriter sound effects in the background).

I think Katie has the potential of connecting with her audience on a more personal level than anyone before her. Anderson Cooper 360 started off that way and was heading in the right direction, but now seems to be slipping back into a more "traditional" news show. The guy that really "gets it" is George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC's The Hour. I love that show. But if you REALLY want to know what's going on in the world, The Daily Show - with Jon Stewart is the only way to fly. Not only do you get the news, but he tells you how to feel about it as well.

Update (after having seen the debut): meh.

Although, Katie did scoop everyone with the first pics of Baby Suri
. Could it be the next Photoshop controversy? Again... You decide.