COURIC GOING TO YAHOO! ABC DEAL STILL UP IN THE AIR

Katie Couric is exiting ABC News to host a new show on Yahoo!, an ABC executive with knowledge of the talks has confirmed. It was not clear, however, whether the new show, first reported Friday by the Hollywood Reporter, will replace her syndicated one or supplement it. (Yahoo! currently hosts ABC’s Good Morning America website.) Couric has rarely appeared on ABC News programs since she moved to the Disney-owned network in 2011, although the news division reportedly pays for a large chunk of her salary, estimated to amount to more than $20 million annually. Most of the remainder of her salary is paid by the syndication arm of the network, which distributes her daily Katie talk show, but whether that show is profitable is open to question. Kara Swisher at the AllThingsD website, who reported in August that a deal was in the works for Couric to host an Internet interview show, said on Saturday that it would feature the former Today show and CBS Evening News anchor presenting “exclusive interviews with a range of high-profile celebrities, business execs and more,” with Couric designated “global news anchor.” Swisher observed that the move to land Couric on Yahoo! was initiated by CEO Marissa Mayer, as part of her plan “to try to goose the staid image of Yahoo! and provide users with unique reasons to come to Yahoo!.”