• by Wayne Friedman , July 5, 2006

CBS News' marketing for Katie Couric's fall debut revolves around a simple request: "Just Watch."

That's the tag line CBS News is using in on-air TV promos, in making its "CBS Evening News" transition from anchor Bob Schieffer to Couric. Couric starts with the famed show on September 5.

According to the Associated Press, the on-air promos have Schieffer introducing Couric to his audience, ad-libbing in his friendly style. Couric appears briefly on the screen, talking on the phone but not speaking. These promos will run during CBS News programs.

Later this month, other on-air promotion will feature Couric talking about the news and how to cover it. The ads will run on non-CBS News programming as well. CBS also will do a media buy on some cable networks and during other non-CBS TV programming.

CBS News President Sean McManus has said: "There's not a great necessity to let people know that she is starting on Sept. 5. We're trying to give a sense of transition."

To ease that transition, Couric is doing a "listening tour" -- traveling to six cities, including Denver and San Diego, to meet with viewers and hear some of their thoughts about news.

Getting younger viewers is always a goal for TV news programming executives since the median age for network news is over 60. The theory behind the hiring of Couric had analysts guessing that CBS would be moving radically in this direction. But McManus says he won't modify the program to draw in younger viewers.

"If we can bring in a younger audience and a different audience, great," McManus told the AP. "But we would be very short-sighted if we were to do something that would alienate the people who are used to watching the news at 6:30."