FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson ...

September 19, 2024

by

Anne Husted Associate Director of Publicity, Communications and Awards, FRONTLINE

THU., SEPT. 19 — Columbia Journalism School announced that Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE has been named the winner of the 2024 John Chancellor Excellence in Journalism Award. 

Over a career spanning more than 25 years in journalism — as a reporter, producer, correspondent and now at the helm of FRONTLINE, the award-winning PBS documentary series produced at GBH in Boston — Aronson-Rath’s “accomplishments have earned her the industry’s highest praise,” Columbia noted. The prestigious John Chancellor Award is presented annually to a journalist “with courage and integrity for cumulative professional accomplishments.”

Raney Aronson-Rath leading a meeting in FRONTLINE’s newsroom at GBH in Boston, May 2015. (Credit: Erik Jacobs for The New York Times)

“I am profoundly honored and humbled by this recognition and grateful to both Columbia Journalism School and the John Chancellor Award committee for acknowledging my journey as a journalist,” says Aronson-Rath. “To all the journalists and filmmakers who have inspired, collaborated, and supported me: thank you. I share this award with you. I am also thankful to the dedicated journalists and staff at FRONTLINE, as well as my colleagues at GBH, PBS, and CPB.” In her role as editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE, Aronson-Rath oversees the acclaimed series’ investigative reporting and editorial vision, executive producing more than 20 in-depth documentaries each year on critical issues facing the United States and the world.

“Audiences rarely see producers’ faces or know their names, but they work tirelessly behind-the-scenes. For over two decades, Raney has produced important and innovative programming for millions of FRONTLINE viewers. Today, the PBS series is more relevant and necessary than ever thanks to her leadership,” says dean of Columbia Journalism School and member of the Chancellor Board, Jelani Cobb.

Raney Aronson-Rath recording for The FRONTLINE Dispatch, FRONTLINE’s original podcast series, September 2017. (Credit: FRONTLINE)

With her leadership, Aronson-Rath has pushed the boundaries of the PBS documentary series and taken it to new heights. She spearheaded FRONTLINE’s expansion into theatrical documentaries, earning an Academy Award® for FRONTLINE and The Associated Press’ 2023 feature-length documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol; launched the series’ first original podcast, The FRONTLINE Dispatch; led an ongoing charge for transparency in journalism as an antidote to misinformation with the Transparency Project; and experimented with new and innovative ways to tell stories through virtual reality, augmented reality and interactive documentaries. Guided by public media’s mission to educate and inform the American public, Aronson-Rath has also made FRONTLINE’s storytelling more accessible than ever. Today, the series reaches millions of viewers on YouTube. ProPublica’s Steve Engelberg describes Aronson-Rath as “a journalist’s journalist, devoted first and foremost to getting the story precisely right … (with) a singular talent for turning complex subjects into visually arresting, nuanced films.” ProPublica is a frequent and trusted editorial partner of FRONTLINE’s and most recently collaborated on the award-winning documentary Inside the Uvalde Response.

“As long as I have known her, Raney has impressed me as a person of extraordinary intelligence, diligence, and professionalism, wholly dedicated to the ethical gathering and dissemination of news,” says Trilogy Films’ Dawn Porter, who served as an executive producer on FRONTLINE and Retro Report’s 2022 documentary American Reckoning and multiplatform project Un(re)solved.

“Raney’s clear-eyed editorial direction for FRONTLINE, paired with her deep appreciation for the power of journalism, enriches the stories we are able to share with our public media audiences,” says Susan Goldberg, president and CEO of GBH. “On behalf of the entire GBH community, we congratulate her on this well-earned recognition.” “We are extremely proud that Raney is being honored for her exceptional contributions to journalism. Under her leadership, FRONTLINE has reached new heights, building innovative models for partnerships and collaboration to shed light on the most important issues of the day,” says Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS. “What impresses me most of all is Raney’s constant, unrelenting commitment to evolution, pushing the boundaries for journalism in the digital age while still delivering journalism of the highest quality. Congratulations to Raney on this well-deserved honor.”

An Oscar-winning producer and a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Aronson-Rath also received the New York Women in Film & Television’s Enid Roth Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Edward R. Murrow Award earlier this year. In 2022, she was recognized with the New England First Amendment Coalition’s Stephen Hamblett Award. Past John Chancellor Award recipients include NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams, ProPublica’s Ginger Thompson, The New Yorker’s Masha Gessen, and FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith and Ofra Bikel.

The John Chancellor Award honors the legacy of pioneering television correspondent and longtime NBC News Anchor John Chancellor, best remembered for his distinguished reporting on civil rights, politics and election campaigns. Selected by a committee of eight distinguished journalists, Raney Aronson-Rath will receive the 2024 award with a $25,000 honorarium. The award will be presented at a ceremony held by Columbia Journalism School on Nov. 14, 2024. PRESS CONTACT: Anne Husted, Associate Director of Publicity, Communications & Awards, FRONTLINE | [email protected] | 617.300.5312