Every day “ABC World News Tonight with David Muir” brings news and analysis to viewers all over the country, and while people tune in and watch the award-winning work, one Penn State alumna helps the show run from behind the scenes.
Allie Marzella, a 2013 broadcast journalism graduate, is a production secretary for the show. Marzella, who started with "World News Tonight" in January, fills many key roles.
While serving as the administrative assistant to the executive producer, she has tasks from office management and running the show’s internship program to coordinating schedules and filling in as a production assistant when needed. In addition, she clears photos, dabbles in social media, writes the teases for affiliate stations across the country and writes all of the lower thirds (text that appears on screen) for the show each night.
“Basically, I’m the point person if anybody needs to know anything about what’s going on in our show. I’m the person to call,” said Marzella. “These kinds of positions, being in an administrative position, are good to have because you learn how to do literally everything.
"There are so many little things that go into making a show work that people don’t even know about and it’s important to me that I’m the person that knows how to do it all.”
With all of the duties, Marzella puts in long days, usually starting between 8:30 and 9 a.m. and working until 7 or 7:30 p.m. In addition to adding plenty of skills to her resume she’s also learning about things going on in the country. For example, with elections and debates being featured in the news, she’s learning nuances about the election process that she might not have known before.
The show is a perfect fit for Marzella, who always wanted to be involved with hard news. On top of that, she has the opportunity to work with an award-winning journalist and anchor in Muir.
“Working for somebody like David is extremely special,” said Marzella. “It’s one of the best experiences you could hope for because he’s a brilliant person and an outstanding journalist. Learning from him directly, I would have to say I’m very lucky.”
Her path to "World News Tonight" was not random. She completed an internship with the popular ABC News program "20/20" the summer before she graduated in 2013. She then served as a freelance production assistant for the show, and later was an associate producer for Lincoln Square Productions -- ABC’s entertainment production company.
The connections she made in those roles helped her reach her current position. While she has been on the job at "World News Tonight" just over three months, she already has plenty of great memories.
Her first interview for ABC was personally interviewing Ed Sheeran when she was working on a behind-the-scenes special on the Billboard Music Awards. She also had the chance to do a travel show for Disney, visiting Alaska, Hawaii, San Francisco and Wyoming.
In the future, Marzella’s dream is to end up in California working in either content development or talent recruitment for ABC. For now, she’s enjoying being able to take it all in and build her knowledge base and her professional network.
“It’s exciting and new every single day, which is what I really love about it and what people in this industry love about working in journalism,” said Marzella. “Breaking news is an adrenaline rush. It’s exciting to be a part of everything happening in the real moment. I’m definitely never bored, that’s for sure."