This is interesting: The "Katie's leaving CBS" story's exit date seems to have moved up a notch, from early next year, to possibly within "the next few weeks", according to this New York Times article. (Gee, the paper of Jayson and Duranty covering the home of Cronkite and Ra^ther--there's a trust-inspiring combination, if there ever was one):

Though some people close to Ms. Couric, as well as some professional associates, said Thursday they believed that it was now likely she would not remain as anchor through the election, and might even leave in the next few weeks, that point was adamantly denied by the senior executives closest to the decision.

“Katie is absolutely going to continue as anchor until the inauguration and very possibly beyond that,” one said.

The executives involved in the situation said that no discussions of Ms. Couric’s future had taken place since the February meeting. Yet the news that she and CBS were even considering an end to the first effort to have a woman as the primary anchor of a network news division surfaced in press reports in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere on Thursday, creating a situation that appeared to leave Ms. Couric vulnerable.

“She’s not a definite lame duck,” a senior executive who has been close to the situation said. “Nothing is decided.”

But after the great fanfare that accompanied her arrival at CBS (with a five-year contract at a salary of $15 million a year) and then a year and a half of disappointing ratings, even the hint that Ms. Couric might depart was hardly a development that CBS News needs.

The news division has been buffeted by a string of bad decisions and strange turns over the last several years, beginning with the firestorm over a report in 2004 on the weeknight edition of “60 Minutes” about President Bush’s National Guard service, and most recently including a near-revolt by staff members over the hiring of an executive producer on the “Early Show” — which resulted in her firing and yet another reassessment for that program.

Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of NBC News and of PBS, said CBS’s confirmation that it was discussing the possibility of replacing Ms. Couric was disconcerting and disruptive, and needed to be viewed in a broader context.

"It suggests the decline and fall of network news, which should come as no surprise,” Mr. Grossman said.

MS: Well, I think the news division, they’re talking exactly the wrong thing. They want to outsource the news gathering to CNN so they can spend all their money on the next big glamorous front man who sucks up all the budget, and has fantastic hair, and a fantastic wardrobe. And the reality is that that’s an antiquated, outmoded version of news. It was outmoded when Dan Rather did it, and nobody, that is never coming back. You can’t find a new Walter Cronkite. Those days are over. And I think this…so I think until you’ve got content driving that news bulletin, until there’s a reason to switch it on…because right now, if you’re interested in news, the last place you’d go to it is the CBS Evening News.

HH: That’s exactly right. If you want serious news or analysis, you don’t go to the nightly newscasts, ever.

MS: No, no, that’s actually the place for people who aren’t interested in news. And it’s pathetic in a time of war, and a time of great turbulence and great change, to switch on, and there’ll be the light item about the new fat pill, or whatever. I mean, it’s formulaic, it’s tired, it’s shallow, and it’s unwatchable.