Saving The Aging 60 Minutes

David Blum crunches the numbers:

“In June 2004, the average age of the ’60 Minutes’ team of correspondents and its then-executive producer, Don Hewitt, was 73 years old.

In June 2006, the average age of the ’60 Minutes’ team and its new executive producer had dropped more than 20%, to 59 years old. If you take 86-year-old Andy Rooney out of the mix, that number drops to 56 years old. The average age of the ’60 Minutes’ correspondents and exec producers at the time of their removal from their positions by CBS News in the period from June 2004 to June 2006 is 83 years old.”

Blum says the newsmag must change, “or risk losing its audience forever,” and the decision to introduce correspondents like Anderson Cooper and Katie Couric “represents an act of courage and risk.” Here’s the full story…