CBS News Hires Ex-CNN Chief To Give a Boost To Katie Couric

It is a homecoming for Kaplan, who began his career at CBS from 1969 to 1979, including a stint as an "Evening News" producer under Cronkite. While Kaplan was fired by CNN in 2000 and by MSNBC in June, he is widely regarded as one of the most creative -- and demanding -- executives in television.

"He's very inventive, very dynamic, got a million ideas a day, or 10. Three are brilliant, three are terrible, and he needed someone to figure out which are which," said ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson. "He sometimes goes on rampages -- thunders and screams and hollers. He's a big guy, and he intimidates people. I've seen him terrorize people, and later he comes back and apologizes, and he means it."

Tucker Carlson, an MSNBC host who worked for Kaplan at that network and CNN, said that "he thought big. He is a natural showman. He's a guy who understands drama. If he wasn't in television, he'd be a great Broadway producer."

Kaplan, 59, has been lecturing at Harvard and the University of Illinois since fall. A personal friend of Bill Clinton, he drew some criticism for twice sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton presidency but said it did not affect his journalism.

As Peter Jennings's executive producer at "World News" in the mid-1990s, Kaplan understands the nightly news game. But he said the three network newscasts, which have been losing audience share for a generation, face much tougher competition now from cable news, the Internet and other new media.

"It was easy then to make your program compelling because people had no information until Walter said, 'Good evening,' " Kaplan said. "Today they come armed with an extraordinary amount of information. We all have a responsibility to push these stories ahead."

Couric was quite popular as a morning personality but has been constricted by the limits of a half-hour format. When she has done longer interviews or reported longer pieces, some colleagues have complained that important stories were being dropped or shortchanged.

Hartman spent months planning the "Evening News" launch with Couric and ran the show while commuting to New York from Washington. "This is one of the great jobs in journalism, and it's been an honor and a pleasure to do it every day, although, in all candor, I'd have loved the chance to do it longer," he said yesterday. "But I completely respect Sean's decision."

Hartman said the broadcast "has been improving and will continue to." CBS said he will be given another assignment.

While Hartman, a former "60 Minutes" producer, was loyal to Couric, he occasionally disagreed with her on, for example, her desire to travel to breaking-news stories. Some CBS correspondents grew frustrated as their roles were reduced and said the broadcast lacked a clear identity. Hartman, for his part, had to cope with numerous executives who had conflicting views of what the program needed.

"He has impeccable credentials from a been there/done that perspective, but he's also just an incredibly decent human being," CBS White House correspondent Jim Axelrod said of Hartman. "Everyone feels a bit of sadness that it didn't work out. But everyone knows the business can be brutal at times."