Raney Aronson-Rath Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer of FRONTLINE Wins Prestigious 2024 John Chancellor Award

Columbia Journalism School announced today that Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE (PBS), is the recipient of the 2024 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism. 

As executive producer since 2015 at PBS’ flagship investigative journalism series, Raney Aronson-Rath oversees FRONTLINE’s acclaimed investigative reporting, and directs the series’ editorial vision — executive producing more than 20 in-depth documentaries each year on critical issues facing the country and the world. Aronson-Rath’s accomplishments have earned her the industry’s highest praise.

Steve Engelberg of ProPublica calls her “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.” 

From covering Putin’s war on Ukraine, to examining America’s legacy of racist killings, to documenting the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, the range of Aronson-Rath’s reporting stands out. She has expanded FRONTLINE’s reporting capacity and spearheaded an initiative to bolster local journalism in news deserts.  She has guided FRONTLINE’s evolution from a longstanding televised documentary series to a timely, multi-platform news organization that is committed to uncovering vital stories and telling them in new ways. 

“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,” said Dawn Porter of Trilogy Films. Under Aronson-Rath’s leadership, FRONTLINE has won many awards in broadcast journalism, including, in 2019, the first duPont-Columbia Gold Baton to be awarded in a decade. The duPonts honored FRONTLINE for being both “a standard-bearer and innovator.” Aronson-Rath has also expanded FRONTLINE’s theatrical documentary footprint, with the series earning multiple Academy Award nominations. In 2024, FRONTLINE won an Academy Award for “20 Days in Mariupol,” in partnership with The Associated Press.

“Congratulations to Raney Aronson-Rath, a J School graduate (‘95) and Board of Visitors Chair,” said Dean Jelani Cobb, a member of the Chancellor Board.  “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.”

The John Chancellor Award is presented each year to a journalist for their cumulative accomplishments. The prize 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 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 Thursday, November 14, 2024.

After earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and her master’s from Columbia Journalism School, Raney Aronson-Rath worked at ABC News and The Wall Street Journal. She began producing for FRONTLINE in 2002,  joined the staff as a senior producer in 2007, was named deputy executive producer by David Fanning, the series’ founder, in 2012, and then became executive producer in 2015. A thought leader in both documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism, Aronson-Rath was selected to serve as the board chair for the Pulitzer Prizes’ first-ever audio reporting category. She is the recipient of the 2024 New York Women in Film & Television’s Enid Roth Award for Excellence in Journalism and the 2022 New England First Amendment Coalition’s Stephen Hamblett Award. She was named a fellow of the MIT Open Documentary Lab in 2014. She lives in Boston.

The John Chancellor Award was established in 1995 by Ira A. Lipman. Mr. Lipman, who died in 2019, was the founder of Guardsmark, LLC, one of the world's largest security service firms. The jury is chaired by Lynn Sherr, and, in addition to Ira Lipman’s son Josh Lipman, includes Dean Jelani Cobb, Cheryl Gould, Robe Imbriano, Hank Klibanoff, Michele Norris, Bill Wheatley, and Mark Whitaker, as well as John Chancellor’s daughter Mary Chancellor. 

About Columbia Journalism School

For more than a century, the Columbia Journalism School has been preparing journalists in programs that stress academic rigor, ethics, journalistic inquiry and professional practice. Founded with a gift from Joseph Pulitzer, the school opened in 1912 and offers Master of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Science in Data Journalism, a joint Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Journalism, The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism and a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications. It houses the Columbia Journalism Review, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, the Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The school also administers many of the leading journalism awards, including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes, the John Chancellor Award, the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award and the Mike Berger Award.
 

Work by Raney Aronson-Rath

• 20 Days in Mariupol: https://20daysinmariupol.com/
• For Sama: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/for-sama/
• Un(re)solved: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/unresolved/
• News War: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/newswar/
• The Last Abortion Clinic: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/clinic/
• The Jesus Factor: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/