It's official! Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced on Monday that Katie Couric has been named "Global Anchor" for Yahoo.
The announcement came after news broke on Friday that Couric would be leaving ABC News prematurely due to reports of a new deal with the Internet corporation.
As Global Anchor, Couric's new responsibilities include reporting "live world events" and anchoring "groundbreaking interviews" to be featured on the website's homepage, a Yahoo spokesperson said in a press release on Monday. Starting in 2014, Mayer said that the new host would lead the company's efforts toward "a new chapter of digital journalism."
"Katie’s depth of experience, her intellectual curiosity, and her charisma make her the perfect choice to anchor Yahoo News and the whole Yahoo Network," Mayer said, adding that Couric would be "the face" of Yahoo News.
Despite her new title, Couric will continue to host her daytime talk show "Katie" on ABC.
“It's very exciting to be a part of a leading company at the intersection of content and technology,” Couric said in the press release. "Joining Yahoo offers a tremendous opportunity to reach people all around the world in the way that they're using and consuming media today."
Couric's move is certainly significant in symbolizing the ongoing shifts in the media landscape, as the Internet gains more and more power in a world formerly dominated entirely by television and print. Her plunge into Internet reporting after reaching the heights of the TV business is one of the biggest such transitions in recent memory. As the news of Couric's move broke, there were some skeptics who wondered whether it would work, but there was no denying that something big had happened.
Although several details of Couric's deal are still unknown, she said in an interview with Capital New York that it was this "open-minded" environment that she is most looking forward to.
"What I really am excited about in working with the team at Yahoo is that there are no rules right now, we are going to try things, we are going to see how they go, we are going to see what people are interested in," she said. “I think it is an opportunity to continue experimenting and trying new things in an online format … bringing some of the same principles that you see in broadcast journalism to the web."
News of the move was first reported by AllThingsD.
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