Katie Couric Lashes Out at 'Vultures'

Katie Couric admits that her new gig as anchor of the CBS Evening News has been "a little harder than I thought it would be."

"Some people out there are rooting for me to fail," Couric, 49, tells Esquire in its January issue. "You have to be unwavering in your convictions that you're doing something good, because there are a lot of circling vultures that will eat you alive."

Couric points out that Esquire itself criticized her after her Sept. 5 debut. "You guys even take a shot at me," she tells the magazine. "You have something in the November issue, something about how since I've become an anchor, you don't know me anymore. You don't know me anymore? Bite me."

Not that there isn't an upside to the new gig. "I sleep a little later, but I'm busier than ever," Couric tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "I now get to make pancakes or scrambled eggs for my daughters (Ellie, 15, and Carrie, 10) in the morning, though some days I can't get it together and we have cold cereal."