Katie Couric lands weekly show with People Mag about ‘overlooked women’
Katie Couric’s career as a digital storyteller continues: She’s been tapped to host “#SeeHer Story,” an inspirational weekly digital series spotlighting “often-overlooked women” developed with People magazine.
The show is part of parent company Meredith’s slate of seven new shows centered around the #SeeHer movement, an initiative launched by the Association of National Advertisers to promote accurate representations of girls and women in media. Meredith — which completed the acquisition of Time Inc. last year — made the announcements Thursday at its Digital Content NewFronts event in New York at its downtown Manhattan offices.
“I’m excited to partner with Meredith and People to inspire the next generation of young female leaders by telling the real and impactful stories of so many amazing women,” Couric said in a statement. “You know what they say: If you can see her, you can be her.” Meredith didn’t announce a premiere date for Couric’s “#SeeHer Story.”
Couric from 2013-17 served as Yahoo’s “global news anchor,” which included a regular interview series, and before that had a long career in TV including anchoring “CBS Evening News” and NBC’s “Today.”
Other shows on Meredith’s #SeeHer slate include InStyle’s “#SeeHer Style,” which will profile notable women leading up to New York Fashion Week this fall. In addition, InStyle is establishing a $30,000 scholarship program for young women.
Meredith also detailed other new programming across its portfolio of 40-plus brands, including People, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Shape, Parents, Martha Stewart Living, EatingWell and Food & Wine. (Meredith has sold Fortune and Time magazine, and it’s seeking a buyer for Sports Illustrated and Money.)
The company said it is doubling down on what it dubs the “three Rs of celebrity”: red carpet, reality and royals. New shows in this category will run across the company’s owned-and-operated network, including its streaming ad-supported PeopleTV network, as well as social media platforms including Twitter.
Meredith also said it has a slate of 20 shows for Instagram’s IGTV vertical-video platform. Fifteen of those have already gone live, Real Simple’s “Beauty on the Move” and Martha Stewart Living’s “Frosted,” which to date have garnered more than 20 million views, according to the company. The upcoming IGTV shows include Parents magazine’s “How I Mom,” starring actress Tiffani Thiessen.
Jon Werther, president of Meredith National Media Group, touted the company’s first-party data to glean insights into consumer trends and its ability to leverage technologies including voice, artificial intelligence and ecommerce to support its advertising biz.
“Our mission is to anticipate our consumers’ needs –- particularly those of the 110 million women we serve –- to inspire and fuel their imagination and to empower them to achieve as they make their everyday decisions,” Werther said.
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