• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 11, 2007

Who hasn't done some Monday morning quarterbacking on one's own career?

Now CBS News' Katie Couric has been doing just that. Leaving a nice cushy job on NBC's "The Today Show," already as financially secure as one could be, she went for a little "adventure" in trying to front the legendary "CBS Evening News."

She's definitely got herself an adventure, akin to a rainstorm in the Amazon jungle -- heavy, blinding, and full of unknown animals looking to take a bite.

Couric has been nicked-up for sure. She debuted to some 13 million viewers, but ratings fell to a current level of 5.5 million viewers, even less than her predecessor, Bob Schieffer.

Couric says the biggest mistake CBS made was trying new stuff -- like all that "family-oriented" news stuff. Now CBS is back on the harder news trail.

CBS News is still profitable - otherwise, why would anyone still be in this business?  If CBS is losing money, it should cut bait, look for a digital solution and save that $15 million a year that Couric is getting. Think how many digital platforms one could buy for that money.

Still, that would mean gutting a once-proud news institution in a news world that continues to radically change, with an audience that wants a diverse combination of opinion (see Fox News), straight news (see CNN and MSNBC), and light, friendly news stories (see "Entertainment Tonight").

Where does this leave Couric? Wishing that perhaps she wasn't at the center of a lot of heavy criticism, wishing that she could go back to a broader mix of news and feature segments -- stories that might cover, for example, raising children in the age of the Internet, making summer holiday dinners, interviewing Tom Cruise, as well as talking to residents of New Orleans.

Some of that broad spectrum of news reports should have been easily transferable to CBS -- not because it's Katie Couric of "Today," but because CBS News needed to find another formula that would tweak the interest of news consumers who are already scattering across the new media landscape.