Katie Couric: I Am Leaving 'CBS Evening News'

The broadcast vet is "looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multi-dimensional storytelling"

Published on April 26, 2011 02:30 PM

After weeks of widespread speculation about her future, Katie Couric is finally ready to go on the record.

“I have decided to step down from the CBS Evening News,” Couric tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I’m really proud of the talented team on the CBS Evening News and the award-winning work we’ve been able to do in the past five years in addition to the reporting I’ve done for 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning. In making the decision to move on, I know the Evening News will be in great hands, but I am excited about the future.”

What’s next for the 32-year broadcast veteran? “I am looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multi-dimensional storytelling,” she says, adding that other details, including when and where the show will air, are “still being discussed.”

As she launches the next phase of her career and her new book, The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives, she is also juggling exclusive interviews with astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, as well as British Prime Minister David Cameron – and she’s covering the royal wedding.

“The bottom line is that I love doing all kinds of different stories,” says Couric, 54. “I have a lot of areas of interest and I want to be able to fulfill all of that.”

For more from Couric’s exclusive interview – including details of her life with longtime boyfriend Brooks Perlin and whether there may be wedding bells in her future – pick up PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday