Magawards change financial assistance, rebating first entry for magazines <$200,000 in revenue

The National Magazine Awards are changing their method of financial assistance to encourage entries by smaller magazines. For this year's awards, magazines with revenues of $200,000 or less are eligible for a full rebate of their first entry fee. The rebate will be the equivalent of the early-bird entry fee (in most categories, $95 + HST), whether or not the magazine takes advantage of the early entry period. The rebates are only available to entries by magazines, not by individual creators (e.g. freelance writers, illustrators, photographers).

Previously, the awards operated what they called "co-financing" whereby small publication were eligible for a partial subsidy of the cost of entering the awards. All successful applicants were approved for a minimum of three submissions provided they had less than $250,000 in total revenue. There were two levels of submission: for those publications under 20,000 circulation; and for even smaller publications, under 2,000.

Applications for the simplified entry system are being accepted now and submissions for the 2014 National Magazine Awards will open December 1. Rebates will be made in February, after all entries are processed.