The news about the news is increasingly grim. Newsrooms are cutting journalism jobs in droves. Many news businesses are collapsing. Clearly, it’s time for new approaches.

With that on my mind, I checked in this week with a journalist I admire, someone who has always taken big risks in her career: Katie Couric.

Couric, of course, was TV network royalty for two decades. I remember vividly when she became the first woman to anchor a nightly news broadcast for a major network, joining CBS from the “Today Show.” Couric surprised everyone again by joining Yahoo, whose wild media ambitions later sputtered. And then, three years ago, she struck out on her own to start Katie Couric Media, an umbrella group for a variety of projects she can direct without having to report to a network boss. 

I chatted with Couric as she was sheltering at her home in East Hampton, where she is working on a memoir.