Julia Ziegler took over as the Director of News and Programming at WTOP roughly 90 days before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ziegler was familiar with the inner workings of the station due to her long tenure leading the digital programming team, but believes the station’s commitment to staying up with new and developing technologies helped during the pandemic.
During an appearance on The Radio Biz podcast, Ziegler shared that while no one was prepared for the pandemic, WTOP was better aligned than other news organizations to alter its processes and remain on the air in a safe environment.
“One of the things that I love, I will say though about our newsroom, is our tech team. Our reporters, even prior to the pandemic, they’ve always been on the forefront of technology. And so that really helped us when we were thrust into the pandemic and having a lot of people work from home,” Julia Ziegler said. “We were able to very quickly set up anchors to anchor from home. Our reporters have always been able to work in their fields so that wasn’t a problem.
“We had never had — on a daily basis — reporters or anchors working from home. It was crazy. All of a sudden we had all these people that are working from home. So it definitely, definitely pushed us even harder to make sure that we could operate efficiently. But I think what’s great about that, is that all of this stuff is great for the next time that we have some emergency come around. We know now so much more than we did three years ago about how we can quickly turn on a dime and make sure that everyone has what they need and can work remotely.”
She continued by noting that the newfound knowledge of remote broadcasting has allowed her employees more flexibility.
“I think it will give more people in our newsroom the option to work from home when needed,” Julia Ziegler said. “In the past, let’s say you were someone who works on the web and you had a contractor coming over the house or you had a plumber coming over the house to fix an issue. You might have to take the whole day off. Now? You’re able to work from home and take care of that. You don’t have to take the whole day off. And I think that gives employees a better work/life balance.
