Joan Konner

Joan Konner was an American television executive and producer.

Konner started her professional media career after she graduated with a master’s from Columbia University’s school of journalism in 1961.

In 1977, she became the executive producer for national news and public affairs for PBS outlet WNET/Thirteen in New York.

During her time in public broadcasting and at NBC, Konner produced more than 50 documentaries and television series that focused on ideas and beliefs. Her work earned two Primetime Emmy nominations and won 16 News & Documentary Emmys, a Peabody Award and an Alfred I. du Pont Award.

In 1988 she went back to Columbia, where she made history as the first female Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, a post she held for eight years. She also served as the publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review.

In 2001, she worked with CNN as one of three experts to examine their coverage of the night of the 2000 presidential election. Konner and the team came to the conclusion that CNN’s coverage was a “news disaster” and recommended that exit polls no longer be used to project winners before the voting was over.

Konner died April 18, 2018, in Manhattan, New York. She was 87.