Jane Latman

President
Discovery Communications

As a 14-year veteran of programming and development at Discovery Communications, Jane Latman was elevated to EVP, development and research at Investigation Discovery in November, 2016. In this role, Latman leads a fierce and innovative team that is the creative force developing and monitoring the success of true-crime and justice content. With her strategic guidance and creative vision, ID has grown from the #50 network for women in 2008 to the #1 network in 2017, earning its place as the most-watched network for women. Latman also retains her position as general manager of Destination America, a post she’s held since September, 2015. In the GM role, Latman supervises the development, production, scheduling, research, marketing, communications, online efforts, and overall vision for the television destination for viewers to explore the unknown.

A true jack-of-all-trades, Latman is a driving force behind the company’s efforts to become a leader in factual television, overseeing hundreds of hours of development for Investigation Discovery and Destination America each year. With an eye for crave-able content, Latman and her team have a talent for developing hit after hit on Investigation Discovery. She is known for finding ways to push the niche genre in unexpected and innovative ways to super-serve fans of true-crime content. Latman is responsible for bringing key talent to ID in with series like Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall, Barbara Walters Presents: American Scandals and Killer Instinct with Chris Hansen, as well as spearheading the network’s efforts for its upcoming foray into scripted content.

Latman has worked in non-fiction television for 20+ years and has been at Discovery Communications since 2003, when she joined the programming department for what was then the Discovery Times Channel. After a stint in development for the Military Channel, Latman was tapped to help transition Discovery Times to Investigation Discovery, giving her the challenging privilege of designing content for the network that would ultimately propel it to growth. Many of her series became hits and continue to perform today, including On the Case with Paula Zahn, A Crime to Remember, Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda, Web of Lies and Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall. Latman also developed the critically-acclaimed documentary film Into the Abyss and subsequent television series On Death Row with legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Prior to joining Discovery, Latman was a freelance producer, director, and writer for projects that included the award-winning series Nurses for Discovery Health Channel and Understanding Obesity for The Learning Channel’s acclaimed Understanding… series. She also did development work for a variety of ventures including PBS’s miniseries Stealing Time: The Science of Aging. Before launching her television career, Latman was a freelance theater director in Washington, D.C., specializing in the development of new plays.

Speaking on: Crime Time: The Evolution of a Genre