What do you see as the biggest difference between the
work you were able to do from January to June of last year while
the talk show was still going on versus the work you were able to
do after the talk show ended and you came on
full-time?
I think we did 296 shows for the second season of my talk show.
So I just couldn't focus on doing things only for Yahoo. I still do
some other things, like my documentary, and I'm doing a few other
things. But I'm really full-time and focused on Yahoo now. I think
to establish ourselves in the space requires a lot of trying to
explain to people what we're doing and to create a body of work so
people can understand the kinds of things I'm interested in doing
and the opportunities this platform provides. ... We always knew
that it was going to take several months to staff up and to get the
resources in place. It takes a village to produce work like this. I
was really excited to jump in in June. ... Now I think we're
operating on all four cylinders and really putting a really
terrific amount of content on a regular basis.
There are so many different
measures for digital content like view counts and comments. How
closely do you look at the numbers or even what people are saying
about the interviews?
As we're trying to establish ourselves as a place you can go for
quality news content, a lot of it is impressions. I interviewed
John Kerry about ISIS in June. On a personal level it's satisfying
to be able to talk with him for half an hour, and then to see the
interview quoted above the fold in The New York Times or used in a
whole host of publications. Clearly those kinds of interviews are
resonating across not just Yahoo's platforms but across a number of
media outlets. Everyone has been incredibly supportive of this
whole cross-section of stories I'm doing because I don't think we
looked at ratings -- sometimes we say, "Wow, this really seemed to
resonate." But if I do a piece on a transgender teenager that gets
three to four million views, I think that's interesting, there's an
appetite for that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to do all
stories about transgender people. I think we look at it and say
that's interesting. But I think the formats are still evolving. The
story selection is still evolving. And I don't think that's our
only goal. Our goal is to establish a presence and to cover issues
that we as a team feel are really important and valuable.
For example, I profiled the first gay police chief in Richmond,
California, to talk about community policing and how violent crime
has decreased a lot in Richmond, California. Now I don't even know
how many views that got. I'm so busy focusing on the content
itself. But to me that was a really important story that tackled an
issue from a different perspective, from a place where community
policing is really working and what does that mean. I did something
with the secretary of commerce about the skills gap in this
country. I did something with Frank Bruni about his book on college
admissions. One great aspect of working here and doing this kind of
content is it has a long tail, and people can find it, and we can
repost things. I do a "Now I Get It" about the Pope and his
position on a number of issues, and if I put it in one piece, when
there's news about the Pope we can repost that. I feel like they
have a very long life span. That's something that is really
exciting and something that I didn't experience in television
really.
Are you seeing that audiences are willing to watch long
interviews or that you need to account for shorter attention spans
by cutting shorter clips?
I think everybody's trying to figure this out. Generally what we
do is -- for example, with Larry David, I might make a half-hour
interview available with Larry David. And then sub-clip it into
Larry David on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David on coming to
broadway for the first time, Katie goofing on Larry David, Larry
David on his love life. We'll do that, and then somebody who really
loves Larry David and wants to sit down and watch the whole thing,
they can do that. ... But we also want to give those who may not
want to sit down for the whole 20- or 30-minute interview an
opportunity to get a taste of it or explore what area of interest
they have.
I spoke with Yahoo CMO Kathy Savitt earlier in the week,
and she said live news programming is a priority for this year.
You've done some live news programming like last year's election
night coverage. But what's the plan moving forward on the live
programming front?
[Ms. Couric explained that the Yahoo News team has covered
stories as they break by conducting interviews with experts.]