Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is raiding the world of traditional media to build a roster of top talent to add prestige and new (video) content to the Yahoo brand.
Roughly a month ago, Mayer poached long-standing New York Times columnist David Pogue to help boost and build out new technology news coverage for the site. Now, she’s landed a bigger fish: ABC’s Katie Couric.
According to The Hollywood Report, Couric is negotiating an end to her more than $40 million deal with the network that featured her on her own interview talk show and in occasional ABC news segments.
Mayer personally recruited Couric, according to the publication. She will host her own news-interview show to be featured on the Yahoo homepage. Couric has had a presence on Yahoo already with a video program called “Katie’s Take,” which is mostly pre-recorded material from her ABC show.
Neither Couric, ABC nor Yahoo have formally confirmed the deal, details of which may not yet be final. Assuming it is, it’s a major coup for Internet media and Yahoo, in particular.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer sees branded content and video, specifically, as a lucrative area for the site to further develop as part of a larger revenue growth and differentiation strategy.
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