Ahoy, Katie

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that Katie Couric is the new anchor of the “CBS Evening News.” But what else do you know about her?

For someone whose life has had so much ink and TV devoted to it over the years, much of it is useless at giving us an idea of how she will look and perform as the highest-paid news personality in television, beginning Sept. 5.

It doesn’t matter anymore whether she despised her “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer or went through assistants the way you and I go through Dentyne. Even those endless tributes to her legs mean nothing, if her Q-and-A Sunday with the nation’s TV critics is any sign: She showed up for it Sunday morning in a gam-covering beige pantsuit.

So here are some things you should know that might actually come in handy when deciding whether to set your TiVo to “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric”:

•She’s been underestimated before. In 1981, the 23-year-old Couric was working as a field producer for the brand-new Cable News Network. CNN’s legendary president Reese Schonfeld was unimpressed and did not fight to keep her like he did other talent. Two decades later, he wrote, “I knew that Katie was destined for greatness, but as a network president, not on-air talent.”

•She’s a people pleaser. Despite her reputation for being difficult behind the scenes, Couric clearly basks in the approval of others. On Sunday she relayed a comment from her ex-boss, Jeff Immelt, the head of General Electric, which owns NBC. “You’re doing this for all the right reasons,” Immelt said.

And lest you think she merely sucks up to CEOs, she courts the everyman vote, too. Last week, Couric traveled the country on a multi-city “listening tour,” perhaps the most widely-covered focus group in history. Afterward, one skeptical attendee in Denver came away impressed, and said she’d watch the Couric report.

•She’s not easily flappable. Asked on Sunday for her plans for the “CBS Evening News,” she deadpanned, “I’m trying to convince Martha Stewart to do a cooking segment every night.” When asked if she thought coverage of her leaving NBC was excessive, she said yes, then added, “but I think coverage of a lot of things is excessive these days.”

•She wants to be “accessible.” Couric and others at CBS use the A-word often to describe how she is not Dan Rather. “Katie will, to a certain extent, make the news more accessible,” said CBS Corp. chairman Leslie Moonves on Saturday.

•But she wants to be taken seriously. The only times Couric’s easy assurance seemed to falter on Sunday came whenever the topics of her celebrity, her clothing and her penchant for publicity arose. Asked if she had thought at all about her wardrobe, Couric bristled: “You’re kidding, right?”

• She’ll be everywhere. In addition to the usual Web-geeky extensions we’ve come to expect — video podcasts, a blog at CBSNews.com and the like — an old-fashioned medium will get the “CBS Evening News” starting Sept. 5, as it is simulcast live on radio (a Kansas City station is yet to be announced). And her visits to cancer fundraisers during last week’s listening tour is a good sign she won’t be leaving the pages of People magazine anytime soon, either.

•She’s realistic. Couric and her producer, Rome Hartman, are planning only incremental changes for the “Evening News”: a “more contemporary” set, new music and graphics, but mostly the same down-to-earth newscast that Bob Schieffer has delivered for the past year-plus. (Schieff will have an undetermined role on the Couric newscast.) Her bosses don’t expect people to start watching network news again just to see her. Instead, they expect to steal viewers from ABC and NBC.

•But she means business. Asked why she wanted the title of managing editor on the newscast (which anchors are traditionally given), Couric gave a telling answer. “I wanted to make sure I had a voice in the process,” she said.