Katie Couric Leaving ABC News For Streaming Talk Show On Yahoo

Katie Couric is on the move again, this time leaving her television reporting post with ABC News to join Yahoo’s fledgling news outfit.

Couric had been serving as a special correspondent for ABC before making the movie to the online giant. At Yahoo she will reportedly host her own interview show that will stream live on the internet.

Before joining ABC News, Katie Couric had a stint as a CBS News anchor and a long tenure on NBC’s Today show.

Her move to Yahoo is seen as a risky one. The website attracted close to 200 million visitors in July, but internet news and talk shows are still a relatively new field and not yet proven financially the way television has. No web show has been able to garner the large syndicaton contracts or advertising revenue as their television-based counterparts like Oprah or the Dr. Phil show.

Katie Couric is in her second season of her ABC-produced talk show, Katie. The show did well against competitors in the ratings, but ABC has held off on renewing the show due in part to its large production budget.

That uncertainty, combined with her light workload with ABC News, may have spurred Katie Couric to make a move now.

Though her departure has not yet been confirmed, a source close to the negotiations said Katie is negotiating an early exit from her ABC contract to join Yahoo.

There had been rumors of other career moves for Katie Couric, In late September rumors emerged that she would be moving to CNN to take over for Piers Morgan, the network’s replacement for Larry King who brought in lackluster ratings.

Katie Couric was seen as a way to boost the sagging viewers, especially in the key 25-54 demographic, but the deal never came to pass.