National Magazine Awards board approves substantial changes

Substantial changes to the National Magazine Awards has been unanimously approved by the board of the National Magazine Awards Foundation at its November meeting. The changes address concerns, both large and small, raised by editors, including those at the big publishers.

A letter detailing the approved changes has gone out to the participating editors and the changes will be posted early in December on the relaunched NMAF website.

Several changes attempt to address perennial dissatisfaction about perceived short shrift given to service journalism, a mainstay of the large number of women's service magazines in this country. As well, a number of clarifications have been made about who or what is eligible for some categories and the board has instituted an open call for judges to begin in fall 2008.

Among the category changes, effective with this year's awards:

• The two new categories are
• Editorial Packaging for a single service article
• Best short feature

• To accommodate those new categories, the definition for the existing Words & Pictures category has been modified to reflect that entries there are intended to tell a story, while entries in the new category must be instructional.

• The visual judging panels will be instructed to recognize that the Homes & Gardens category is a service-driven, rather than a photojournalistic category.
  
• Greater distinction is being made between Service and How-to categories. Service is defined as informational; how-to as "instructional". Articles submitted to How-to may not be entered in Service categories.
• The limit of one Editorial Package entry per magazine has been raised to three, reflecting that some magazines do a lot of these. (The limit of three is an attempt to keep a limit on the judging load.)
• Profiles have been redefined to include families, couples, teams or groups as well as individuals.

Among the process changes:

• Written magazine mandates and target audience statement will now be mandatory for all entries (made easier by the electronic entry process).
• In addition to the normal recruitment efforts, there will be an open call for judging nominations, beginning in fall 2008; nominees will be reviewed by the judging committee and judging coordinator as usual.

NMAF President Kim Pittaway said in the letter:

I want to thank all of you who participated in our conversations for your candor, thoughtfulness and on-going commitment to the Awards program. The NMAF Board and Judging Committee are committed to ensuring that our program reflects and rewards the best of our industry’s creative efforts, and your input has been essential to assisting us in those efforts.