Katie's Moment

"Honestly, it's a very bittersweet day for me, both personally and professionally," Zucker said. "The fact is, I'm very happy for Katie. Great people get great jobs. At the same time, I feel incredibly confident about 'Today' going forward, and that means no disrespect to Katie." Zucker noted that the top-rated "Today" show has weathered transitions from the likes of Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel.

Couric called Schieffer at home Tuesday night and thanked him for his graciousness.

Schieffer, who succeeded Dan Rather as CBS anchor 13 months ago but did not want the job permanently, was traveling yesterday but made a videotape that was played for the staff. He praised Couric and used a sports analogy, saying that when one team goes after another's big-salary player, it is serious about becoming No. 1.

He said yesterday he will still play a role after September as chief Washington correspondent and is discussing the possibility of doing commentaries for the newscast. He has boosted the program's ratings by adopting a more conversational style that features more chats with the show's correspondents.

"It's already heading in the direction that Katie is comfortable with," said Jeff Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes" and a former producer of the CBS newscast.

He said Couric will do a half-dozen pieces a year for "60 Minutes," which was key to the deal because she had always dreamed of being on the program. CBS chief executive Les Moonves and longtime producer Don Hewitt had tried in the past to lure her to the newsmagazine. "What makes her perfect for us is that she does such good interviews," Fager said.

Moonves, in a statement, said he is "personally so excited" about the move, which he called a "giant leap forward" for the news division.

Couric, who had met occasionally with Moonves over the past year before the anchor job was discussed, sought and received assurances that CBS would devote ample resources to the newscast. CBS executives became convinced that Couric could have gotten more money by re-signing with NBC but that her primary motivation was finding a new challenge, several of the sources said.

Not everyone at CBS is celebrating Couric's pending arrival. Andy Rooney, the curmudgeonly "60 Minutes" commentator, said on the Don Imus radio show: "I'm not enthusiastic about it. I think everybody likes Katie Couric. I mean, how could you not like Katie Couric? But I don't know anybody at CBS News who is pleased that she's coming here."

Others at CBS News are more welcoming -- Walter Cronkite praised Couric's "great talents" in a CNN interview last night -- but there is a significant faction that prizes the recent changes and ratings growth under Schieffer and wishes he could have continued. He brought the newscast within 150,000 viewers of ABC one week last month, while still trailing "NBC Nightly News" by more than 1 million.

Couric, for her part, didn't feel she had anything to prove, but wanted to leave "Today" after 15 years while she still loved doing it, said those familiar with her thinking. She has bristled at media criticism that focused on her lighter "Today" exploits, from cooking to dancing, feeling that detractors minimize all the hard-news interviews she has done over the years, particularly during the show's newsier first half-hour.

"The show will reflect her taste, talent, skills and personality," Rome Hartman, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News," told the network's Web site. One idea under consideration is for Couric to interview not just newsmakers near the top of the show but experts or ordinary people for feature stories later in the program.