National Geographic tops U.S. National Magazine Awards

National Geographic magazine and Vanity Fair magazine were the only two publications to enjoy multiple wins in the U.S. National Magazine Awards (Ellies), handed out Thursday by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME).

National Geographic won three awards, including general excellence the second year in a row. These are more than it had ever captured in a single year. This, according to a story in the New York Times.

Vanity Fair won two awards. New York magazine and The New Yorker, which have become accustomed to win multiple awards, each won only one.

National Geographic won one of its awards for other than photography (usually its long suit) -- for reporting, in an article on the growth of the Chinese economy, written by Peter Hessler.

However it was the back to back awards for general excellence that surprised even the people at who have been striving to improve the magazine beyond its deserved reputation for photography. “I’m stunned,” Chris Johns, editor in chief, said in accepting the award for general excellence. “I’m not prepared for this.”

In its citation, the American Society of Magazine Editors said of National Geographic, “While remaining true to traditions known to generations of readers, the magazine continues to inspire and amaze — with photography that reveals wondrous, and often threatened, corners of our planet, and reporting that is both intrepid and tough-minded."

Atlanta, Bicycling, Condé Nast Portfolio, New Letters and Runner's World each took home their first Ellies (so named because of the elephant stabile by sculptor Alexander Calder that winning magazines get to take home.) For Portfolio, it was sweet justice, given the backbiting and uncertainty that surrounded its launch year.

Shut out this year were the New York Times magazine and its specialty companion titles T and Play

The ASME release, with all the winners.