Katie Couric

When Katie Couric first started working in broadcast news in the late 1970s, there were few women in the industry in high-ranking positions.

“Because the people in positions of power were predominately — and quite frankly, still are — white males, the things they cared about, the stories they selected and the ways they covered stories were definitely influenced by their personal demographics,” she said in an interview with The Hill. 

In the decades since beginning her career, Couric, 63, has held some of the most prominent positions in TV news, at ABC, NBC and CBS.

Her positions have included serving as co-anchor of “Today” from 1991 to 2006 and as the anchor of “CBS Evening News” from 2006 to 2011. That post made her the first woman to be the solo anchor of one of the “big three” television networks’ weeknight evening news programs.

“One of the reasons that I took on that job was, I thought it was a really important statement on behalf of women everywhere,” Couric said. 

Couric said her time at CBS News wasn’t always easy.

“I think that when you’re the first person to do a job like that, and you get a lot of attention for that, a lot of scrutiny comes with it,” she said. “So it was sometimes pretty challenging, but I was really, really proud of the work.”

Couric is an advocate for cancer research and is a co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer. She also currently runs her own production company, Katie Couric Media, which provides content in a number of different formats as the news landscape has changed.

— Naomi Jagoda