A staple of local journalism, Alison Starling is stepping away from the anchor desk at 7News after 20 years of delivering headlines to the D.C. area.
Starling made the announcement that her last day on WJLA’s air would be Nov. 22 in a social media post on Thursday. The post said that Starling would be stepping away to focus more of her attention on her family, including her young daughters.
“I was passionate and still am passionate about covering news in D.C. … But my gut is telling me that I’m never going to get this time back with my kids and it’s time to make a change,” Starling told WTOP. “So, 20 years felt like a good round number to step away and make it official.”
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Starling and her husband Peter Alexander have two daughters, 10-year-old Ava, and 8-year-old Emma. She recalled Emma’s reaction when she told her she’d be leaving the local ABC News affiliate — which is also a partner of WTOP news.
“She was like, ‘Wait, are you going to pick me up at school?'” Starling recalled.
“Just having the opportunity to be around more while the girls are still young enough to want us around is a really good thing,” she said.
Starling said that being an only child, she also wants to be able to be there for her aging parents.
“As they get older, I want to be available to take care of them in a new way,” she said.
For now, that means a total break from news for Starling.
“Maybe one day, I would come back and do some special reports or projects,” she said. “But in the way I am now, which is anchoring, three hours a day — noon, four and five — that’s going to stop and I’m just going to take some time with my family and start a new chapter.”
The couple’s kids have grown up with both parents in the news as her husband is the Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News.
When anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast years ago, Starling said her daughters were still very young.
“I would come home on my dinner break and put them to bed and go back into work,” she said.
Starling added that anchoring was her “dream job for 20 years.”
“As you can imagine, this was a really difficult decision,” she wrote on social media. “7 News is where I have grown up and where I’ve found friends who now feel like family members.”
For many, Starling has graced TV screens daily for much of the past two decades and her announcement led other journalists and TV-viewers to post tributes online.
Congratulations on a long great run! You’ve always been a class act Alison. My best wishes to you, Peter and the kids. 👍
— Tom Fitzgerald (@FitzFox5DC) November 2, 2023
Reflecting on two decades of DC news
Starling anchored the noon, 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts at 7News and has won seven Emmy’s, including for her coverage of the 2011 earthquake, Pope Francis and the Baltimore Riots, according to 7News’ website.
“Covering news in the nation’s capital is an incredible life experience,” she said. “Every single day, we’re covering national stories, but on this local level, where we get to be part of this fantastic community, while still reporting on the biggest news in the country most days.”
While she said she’s covered many important stories, some of the most fun ones include when the Washington Nationals won the World Series and when the Capitals won the Stanley Cup.
Another moment in her career that stands out, unsurprisingly, is working through the COVID-19 pandemic and “setting up a studio in my house, to be able to anchor the news every day, which is something I definitely never thought I experienced.”
Starling joined 7News in 2004 after leaving a position as a reporter and anchor in Seattle. After working at the D.C.-based station for less than year as a reporter, Starling was promoted to co-anchoring the early weekday newscast, “Good Morning Washington,” and the half-hour noon newscast.
At the station, she said she got to learn from “pillars of journalism” such as Maureen Bunyan, Gordon Peterson, Tim Brant, Doug Hill, Arch Campbell and Leon Harris.
Even after decades in the field, Starling said she continued to learn from her current colleagues daily, which is part of what kept her in the business for so long.
Starling thanked TV viewers for welcoming her into their homes.
“These 20 years have been a blur in many ways and I’m just so grateful that I had the opportunity to be here for all these years,” she said. “I’m glad that I’m still going to be around in D.C. and I think, eventually, I’ll find something to do with this skill set.”
