AP via Yahoo! News
Isn't the bigger question: Why are network execs finally choosing women for these top prestigious jobs after the audience for them is on the decline?
The total audience for the nightly news broadcasts on CBS (anchored by Katie Couric), ABC or NBC, has shrunk in half between 1993 and 2000. It has held fairly steady since, with about one-third of Americans tuning into one of the three broadcasts every night, according to The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
It's an aging audience. Most, 56 percent, are age 65 and over, while 18 percent are between the ages of 18 and 29. Meanwhile, the cable news audience has been growing and more people are going online to get their news every day. As Jack Shafer on Slate suggests, maybe the millions that are being spent on salaries for Couric, NBC's Brian Williams and soon, Sawyer, would be better spent hiring reporters to break and cover news. There certainly are plenty of laid-off reporters and underpaid young bloggers/reporters ready to get to work.
The silver lining, I suppose, is it's nice to see a woman get such a big promotion at age 63. Sawyer's story is also one of (major) career reinvention. After a brief stint as a TV reporter in Louisville, Kentucky, she went to work for the Nixon White House press office. She stayed with Nixon past his impeachment, helped him write his memoirs, and even helped prepare him for the famous interviews with David Frost. Clearly, she has skills. She was able to transition from working for America's most reviled president/politician to working as a TV journalist for CBS and ABC on shows including "60 Minutes," "Primetime Live," and "20/20" before heading back to morning news. Impressive.
So, will you be watching "ABC World News" because there will be a woman at the helm? Do you watch nightly news shows at all? If not, where do you get your news?
