Media

Katie Couric’s demographic might not make it to Yahoo!

It’s easy to see what Katie Couric sees in Yahoo! as she becomes its global anchor. She is bidding to become the biggest star on the Internet.

But what’s in it for Yahoo?

The company is rolling the dice that Couric, who became America’s Sweetheart at NBC’s “Today” in the 1990s, can give ample glamour and star power to Marissa Mayer’s reboot.

Problem is, Couric, 56, skews older than the demographic of 18- to 34-year-olds that companies covet.

As the website Mashable pointed out last week, Couric’s ABC daytime show, “Katie,” has attracted an average of roughly 2.2 million viewers; further, the average age of her audience is about 61, a demographic that isn’t widely known to be tied to the Internet.

“She doesn’t bring a natural constituency with her to Yahoo!” noted Paul Carroll, a partner in the consulting group The Devil’s Advocate in San Francisco. “She can do a bunch of pieces on politics or health or whatever, but I just don’t see how Couric and Yahoo! will really mesh,” Carroll added.

Today, the rivalry among the likes of Yahoo!, Netflix, Google, cable television, Hollywood movies and the gaming industry boils down to a battle for your eyeballs.

“Yahoo! is trying to establish itself as a player in content,” noted Robert Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University who specializes in television and popular culture. “But I don’t know if this is the kind of thing that will set Yahoo on fire. If Yahoo had gotten Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert away from Comedy Central, they would bring an enormous fan base with them.”

These days, Yahoo! is anxious — some might even say desperate — to rebrand itself at a time when Netflix is attracting praise on Wall Street and Main Street for its brilliant reinvention as an audacious and successful content provider.

Netflix has wooed young viewers with such daring original programs as “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black.”

Ultimately, Couric will be judged a success or a bust depending how dramatically she can help Yahoo! transform its image from a Silicon Valley tech dweeb into a glam content provider, complete with TV star quality.