MediaBuyerPlanner: On a six-city "listening tour" concluded last month, Katie Couric - who joins CBS Evening News on Sept. 5 as anchorwoman - has told audiences that viewers want evening news programs to be an hour instead of 30 minutes.

The off-the-record conversations with CBS News viewers validated changes that Couric and executive producer Rome Hartman were considering, such as an ongoing segment for regular people to share opinions, she told the AP (via Yahoo).

Couric will be the first woman to serve as a solo nightly news anchor and she plans to add some more hopeful stories, according to the Washington Post. However, she does not plan to make the program "smiley-face happy news."

Dan Rather also talked frequently about the need for a longer newscast, but it is unlikely to happen, according to the article, because affiliates generally follow half-hour news programs with profitable syndicated programs such as Jeopardy.