Finalists announced for American cover awards

The finalists for the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Best Cover competition has been announced, selected by ASME members. Members of the public can now vote for the People's Choice Awards. The New Yorker and New York are in the lead, with four nominations each. 

Vogue named mag of the year in U.S. national magazine awards

The "Ellie" trophy: a "stabile"
by Alexander Calder

The [US] National Magazine Awards were announced last night in New York and magazine of the year was Vogue. 

New York magazine and The New Yorker each won three awards. 18 publications won awards in 24 categories, including first-time winners: The Atavist, The Hollywood Reporter, Pacific Standard and Nautilus.

The awards for general excellence went to:

• The New Yorker (general interest magazines)
• Glamour (service and lifestyle)
• Garden & Gun (style and design)
• Men's Health (active interest)
• The Hollywood Reporter (special interest)
• Nautilus (literature, science and politics)

Best tablet magazine was National Geographic.

It was nice to see one of The New Yorker's awards went to 90-ish Roger Angell for “This Old Man,” in the February 17 and 24, 2014 issue of the magazine. 

Full list of winners

New York magazine wins magazine of the year award at U.S. national magazine awards

New York magazine won the top prize for both its print and digital coverage at last night's presentation of the [U.S.] National Magazine Awards. It also won for best cover for its November 12 "The City and the Storm" front. For details, here is the New York Times story on the results and the American Society of Magazine Editors page about the cover competition (ASME manages the awards.)

U.S. National Magazine Awards finalists announced.

The finalists for the U.S. National Magazine Awards, run by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) have been announced. National Geographic has seven nominations, followed by New York magazine and Bon Appétit with six each. GQ and the New Yorker have five each. Among publishing groups, Condé Nast has the most finalists — 26 — to Hearst Corp.’s nine; Time Inc. also had nine. 

Milton Glaser

Walter Bernard

The May 2 awards gala will include a presentation of the Creative Excellence Award to Milton Glaser and Walter Bernard, whose work as graphic designers has shaped the modern magazine. The Creative Excellence Award was established in 2008 by ASME to recognize writers and artists who have made unique and enduring contributions to magazines.

According to a story in WWD,

Several obscure magazines and some upstarts notched their first appearance at the Ellies, among them: MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History; Byliner, a digital publisher, and Mental Floss, a hybrid humor and topical magazine from Dennis Media. There are also several renamed categories to reflect, for the first time, the inclusion of the digital magazine awards at the primetime ceremony. After much debate, for instance, the profile writing category was dropped, and eventually merged with another category to form “Feature Writing Incorporating Profile Writing.” In that category, GQ received two nominations: one for Karen Russell, the young Pulitzer Prize-nominated novelist, who was nominated for her profile of a one-eyed matador, and a second for Jay Kirk, who wrote about treating burn victims with experimental video games.

The New Yorker, Wired, Texas Monthly and Byliner were the other finalists.

Esquire, whose editor, David Granger, had raised a big stink over the elimination of the profile writing category, was nominated for best in its class — news, sports and entertainment magazines — and for best magazine section, “Man at His Best.” Among the service and fashion titles, the finalists are: Harper’s Bazaar, O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Vogue, and Rodale’s Women’s Health. Bon App was nominated in the lifestyle magazines category alongside House Beautiful, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, and Texas Monthly. Last year, then under editor Richard Just, who was later ousted, the New Republic earned a best of its class nomination in the literary and political magazine category, and it’s repeated the trick again this year, now under editor Franklin Foer. It is up against MIT’s Technology Review, Mother Jones, The Paris Review and Poetry.

Unlike the National Magazine Awards in Canada, the U.S. awards are made to magazines rather than individual writers, artists and photographers. The awards -- nicknamed the "Ellies" -- come with a statue designed by the sculptor Alexander Calder in the form of an elephant. 

Time magazine named U.S. Magazine of the Year

Time magazine was named Magazine of the Year at Thursday evening's U.S. National Magazine Awards event presented in New York by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). The selection was based on its issues about the death of Steve Jobs, the killing of Osama bin Laden and its "Person of the Year" issue The Protester.

Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter accepted the columns and commentary award on behalf of Christopher Hitchens, who passed away in December.  It was the second year in a row that the award went to VF and Hitchens.

Terry McDonell, who as Editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group oversees Sports Illustrated, was elected into the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.

Other winners and finalists for the coveted "Ellie" (an elephant sculpture created originally by the artist Alexander Calder) were:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE
  ♦ Inc. (active and special-interest magazines)
  ♦ Bloomberg Businessweek (general interest magazines)
  ♦ House Beautiful (lifestyle magazines)
  ♦ IEEE Spectrum (thought-leader magazine)
  ♦ O, The Oprah Magazine (women's magazines)

DESIGN
  ♦Gentlemen's Quarterly

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ The New York Times Magazine

FICTION
  ♦ Zoetrope: All-Story

LEISURE INTERESTS
  ♦ Saveur

NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ Harper's magazine

PERSONAL SERVICE
  ♦ Glamour

PHOTOGRAPHY
  ♦ Vogue

Digital Ellies were presented at March 20 ASME luncheon

No women nominated for non-fiction writing in U.S. magazine awards

[This post has been updated} There are no female nominees in the major non-fiction writing categories of the U.S. National Magazine Awards, according to an article by Alexander Nazaryan in the New York Daily News. There are no female nominees among the 25 in reporting, feature writing, profile writing, essays/criticism and columns/commentary.  The winners in each category will be announced in New York on May 3.The list of nominees have just been announced by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). Lady Journos blog has compiled a breakdown.

A quick scan seems to indicate that we're unlikely to see a similar anomaly in the National Magazine Awards in Canada  (nominees due to be announced next month) -- women have been strongly represented in all categories. There is a substantial difference between the ASME awards (which reward magazines, rather than individual creators) and the NMAs.
[Update: Sid Holt, the chief executive of ASME, rather brusquely dismissed criticism saying that the controversy was "kind of silly" and citing a number of women writers nominated in the past few years.
“There’s no men’s category — that’s not the way the magazine business works, as a trip to any newsstand will show," he said.]

[Thanks to posts on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers listserv from Moira Farr and Deborah Birkett for alerting me to this information.]

ASME unveils augmented guidelines about magazine websites

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has unveiled new guidelines about magazine websites, augmenting its longstanding print guidelines for publishers and editors. According to a story in Adweek, the new guidelines have the same spirit as print, but deal with specific areas of concern such as product placement, paid links and interruptive advertising. The revised print guidelines were released in October.

“The overriding principle is still the same—the user has to be able to distinguish ads from edit,” said Eric Schurenberg, editor in chief of the CBS Interactive Business Network, who consulted with editors and publishers in spearheading the new guidelines. “We don’t want to stand in the way of innovation, but [want to] make it clear who’s in charge.”

 The addition of the web guidelines to the print now offers a comprehensive list of best practices which will probably be observed by most, but sniffed at by some. The guidelines are voluntary and sanctions are stern warning letters and possible exclusion from the ASME-run National Magazine Awards.

The new guidelines say paid or sponsored links should be identified as such; Web sites should not promote products in exchange for advertising; and sponsored microsites should be visually distinct from the main Web site. A section on interruptive advertising says such ads should be subject to editorial approval. ASME wants such ads to have a prominent “close” or “skip” button and last no more than 10 seconds.

ASME also gets into the burgeoning area of social media. Marketing messages shouldn’t be integrated with editorial content, while bloggers should disclose commercial ties they have with an advertiser or marketer, reflecting new FTC rules aimed at the blogosphere, the organization says.

The new guidelines include a section on tablet versions of magazines, attempting to ensure that ads alook different from editorial pages to avoid confusing the two, since tablets' ads often aren’t displayed opposite editorial the way they are in print.
 
The Canadian magazine industry's advertising-editorial guidelines were recently revised, with the suggestion that similar guidelines would also soon be developed for web applications.

Vampire front wins magazine cover of the year for Harper's Bazaar

 Harper's Bazaar December 2009 "Twilight" cover has been named the [U.S.] magazine cover of the year in the annual awards of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Previously announced had been the winners in various categories:

• Best news and Business -- The Atlantic "Fat Nation"
• Best entertainment and celebrity --GQ "Clint Eastwood"
• Best Fashion & Beauty -- The New Yorker
• Best Lifestyle -- GQ "Johnny Depp"
• Best science, technology and nature -- National Geographic "Water"
• Best sports and fitness -- Sports Illustrated "Pictures of the Year"
• Best in House & Home -- Coastal Living "Weekend Paradise"
• Funniest -- Playboy "Marg Simpson"
• Most controversial -- New York "Obama Hate"
• Most delicious -- Texas Monthly "The 50 best burgers"
• Sexiest -- Sports Illustrated "Swimsuit 2010"
• Best vampire -- Harper's Bazaar "Twilight"

The ASME cover awards are made by a popular vote among Amazon.com customers. 

Glamour named magazine of the year in U.S. national magazine awards

Condé Nast’s Glamour magazine won Magazine of the Year at the annual American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Awards, presented last week. Other multiple award winners at the event were:

• New York, which won four "Ellies" including general excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circ)
• The New Yorker, which won three awards
• National Geographic, which also took home three, including general excellence over 2 million circ
• Wired won two Ellies, including best design for the second year in a row
• San Francisco, which won general excellence less than 100,000 circ
• Mother Jones, general excellence 100,000 to 250,000
• GQ, general excellence 500,000 to 1 million circ
• Men's Health, general excellence 1 million to 2 million

Vogue editor Anna Wintour was inducted into the Editors' Hall of Fame by The New Yorker editor-in-chief, David Remnick. 

Complete list of winners

By the way, the nominees for Canada's National Magazine Awards will be announced on May 4.

ASME best cover finalists named by Amazon visitors

Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and Harper’s Bazaar were among the ten magazine covers chosen by Amazon.com customers as “Best Magazine Cover of the Year” in their respective categories, the American Society of Magazine Editors have announced.

According to a story in Audience Development, this is the first time ASME has had consumers, rather than ASME members, choose the winners and it was done through the online bookseller's poll of its visitors.

Magazine covers were eligible if they appeared in issues dated from June 1, 2008, through May 30, 2009. More than 100,000 votes were counted.

A second round of public voting now through September 30 on www.amazon.com/bestcovers, will pick “Best Cover of the Year” among the 10 category winnersto be announced by ASME President David Willey on Oct. 14 at the Magazine Innovation Summit in New York.

Here’s the full list of category winners:

Entertainment & Celebrity: Vanity Fair
(January 2009 issue)

Sports & Fitness: Sports Illustrated
(December 12, 2008 issue)

Fashion & Beauty: Harper’s Bazaar
(March 2009 issue)

House & Home: Veranda
(October 2008 issue)

Lifestyle: Condé Nast Traveler
(August 2008 issue)

News & Business: New York
(March 2, 2009 issue)

Science, Technology & Nature: Audubon
(August 2008 issue)

Most Delicious: Bon Appétit
(August 2008 issue)

Sexiest Cover: ELLE
(December 2008 issue)

Best Obama Cover: Rolling Stone
(July 10-24, 2008 issue)

Cover "pouch" newest wrinkle in making most of covers for magazine ad sales

House Beautiful, a major U.S. shelter magazine, features a "pouch" behind (or sandwiched inside) the front cover for its September issue. It is but the latest attempt by magazine publishers to find a way to strike a balance between maintaining the integrity of editorial covers while finding creative ways to engage advertisers.

According to a story in the New York Times the pouch contains a card which, on one side, has a chart to help homeowners choose colours for decorating. On the other side is an advertisement for Glidden Paints.

Kate Kelly Smith, vice president and publisher of House Beautiful, part of the Hearst Magazines division of the Hearst Corporation in New York, said the pouch — which appears on the cover of the annual fall color issue — was designed to meet [American Society of Magazine Editors] guidelines.

“We were very careful,” Ms. Kelly Smith said, that it be “an editorial cover” because “everything at House Beautiful begins with an editorial lens.”

Stephen Drucker, editor in chief at House Beautiful, agreed with her, saying that “none of the real estate on the cover is anything but editorial.”

“The advertiser had no knowledge about what the content” of the pouch would be, he added, other than it would be part of “a color issue.”

Mr. Drucker described himself as “particularly enthusiastic” about the idea, a first for House Beautiful, because “we editors have to make magazines exciting again, and this is a great demonstration of how to do that.”

In the past year, there have been several examples of attempts by magazines to come up with creative use of covers -- some of them less successful than others in keeping the "church and state" separation of advertising and editorial.

[photo by Philip Friedman / Studio D]

Related and recent posts:

• It's subtle, but Popular Science sells its cover
• ASME calls two magazines on the carpet for ad encroachment on covers
• ESPN magazine takes "flapvertising" another step
• Ads creep onto magazine covers
• "Flapvertising" debuts at Esquire
• Ad encroachment on magazine covers comes in many different forms

The New Yorker, natch, leads U.S. magazine awards nominee list

The New Yorker once again leads the pack with a total of 10 nominations, including for general excellence, reporting and feature writing in the American Society of Magazine Editors' (ASME)awards, announced on Wednesday. Close behind was GQ, with 8 nominations, the most that magazine has ever received in a single year.

For general excellence online:

• 1 million or more average monthly visitors: BusinessWeek.com; Chow.com; National Geographic Magazine Online (ngm.com); New York Magazine Online (nymag.com); Time.com
• Less than 1 million average monthly visitors: Backpacker.com; MotherJones.com; Parenting.com; RunnersWorld.com; Triple Canopy (www.canopycanopycanopy.com)

The winners in the various categories will be announced at a gala on April 30 at Frederick P.Rose Hall in Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In the general excellence category for print, the nominees are:

• Circulation under 100,000: The American Scholar; Aperture; Bidoun; Print; The Virginia Quarterly Review
• Circulation 100,000 - 250,000: Foreign Policy; Los Angeles Magazine; Mother Jones; Paste; Time Out New York
• Circulation 250,000 - 500,000: The Atlantic; Backpacker; New York; Texas Monthly; W
• Circulation 500,000 1,000,000: The Economist; Fast Company; GQ; Runner’s World; Wired
• Circulation 1,000,000 2,000,000:Bon Appétit; Field & Stream; The New Yorker; Popular Science; Vogue
• Circulation over 2,000,000: Martha Stewart Living; National Geographic; Reader’s Digest; Real Simple; Time

Read the full nominees' list.