Magazine Grands Prix winners announced: The Kit Compact named magazine of the year

The Kit Compact was named magazine of the year in the Magazine Grands Prix, presented Thursday evening at an awards dinner in Toronto. It was chosen as the overall winner from among eight category winners by a panel of five judges including  co-chairs Stanley Péan and Soraya Peerbaye. 

 “The Kit Compact proposes a fresh, feminist vision of the fashion magazine, foregrounding the female body as a site of knowledge, curiosity, resistance, and joy,” wrote Peerbaye. “This is a magazine that sees Canadian women not as consumers, but as creators—and re-creators—of culture. The Kit defines a spectrum of ideals that goes far beyond norms of beauty, to hold a multiplicity of notions on the body, identity and community, celebrating both independence and interdependence.”

The eight best magazine award category winners were:

• Best General Interest Magazine: The Walrus
• Best Service and Lifestyle Magazine: Chatelaine
• Best Food and Beverage Magazine: Dînette Magazine
• Best Fashion and Beauty Magazine: The Kit Compact
• Best Home Design and Décor Magazine, including Gardening: Western Living
• Best Literature and Art Magazine, including Poetry: esse arts + opinions
• Best Science, Business and Politics Magazine: Québec Science
• Best Niche/Special Interest Magazine: Hayo

As previously announced, Carole Beaulieu accepted the Editor Grand Prix for  her work with L’actualité, the Quebec current affairs magazine. 

[Complete list of finalists, winners and judges for each award.]

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Finalists announced for Magazine Grands Prix awards

Best cover finalists

The finalists for the first Magazine Grands Prix have been announced for their inaugural year by Magazines Canada. Winners will be announced at an awards fête to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Thursday, April 27, including the awards for editor of the year and magazine of the year. Both will be announced prior to the awards. The top honour will be for the Magazine Grand Prix, awarded to the one of the 8 magazine category winners, will reflect a magazine that consistently delivers the best reader experience and how its team comes together to create the magazine.

The new awards, which inevitably are seen as keen competitors for the National Magazine Awards, They are being awarded after deliberation of a panel of 40 judges, co-chaired by Stanley Péan and Soraya Peerbaye, selected a shortlist and winners "based on set of guiding principles for adjudicating and celebrating excellence in Canada's magazine media," said a Magazines Canada release. Among some of the notable highlights cited:

• There was strong interest from new and independent magazines across the country this year: notably, five new magazines that were launched in the last year: Curated Life, Dînette Magazine, Hayo, Inspired Dining by Canadel, and Peeps.
• Mark Pupo of Toronto Life is a double nominee, in Best Service and Lifestyle Story.
• Maclean's and its individual creators have been nominated for a total of six awards, including: Best General Interest Story (Michael Friscolanti), Best Science, Business and Politics Story (Nancy Macdonald), Best General Interest Magazine, Best Multi-Platform Story Treatment, Best Multi-Platform Magazine Brand, and Best Art Direction of an Entire Issue (Stephen Gregory).
• FLARE and its individual creators have been nominated for a total of four awards, including: Best Fashion and Beauty Story (Tiyana Grulovic, Courtney Shea, Amy Verner, Nancy Won), Best Entertainment and Celebrities Story (Jessi Cruickshank), Best Multi-Platform Story Treatment, and Best Cover.
• esse arts + opinions and its individual creators have been nominated for two awards, including: Best Literature and Art Magazine, and Best Art Direction of an Entire Issue (Studio Feed).
• There are seven finalists in three Best Story categories whose work was published by Toronto Life: John Hofsess, Jean Grant, Malcolm Johnston, Emily Landau, Rebecca Philps, Mark Pupo and Caroline Youdan.
• There are four finalists in three Best Story categories whose work was published by The Walrus: Teva Harrison, Liz Howard, Lauren McKeon and Mary Rogan.
• There are three finalists in two individual categories whose work was published by Maisonneuve: Heidi Berton, Chris Scott and Marchien Veen.

Below are the finalists in alphabetical order. All nominated submissions are available at https://maggrandsprix.ca/awards/

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Entries for contending awards programs coming down to the wire

We will know soon enough which way the creative contributors and magazine publishers have chosen to celebrate their work in this spring's awards season. The final deadlines for entries are in the next couple of weeks: Jan 20 (this Friday) for the 40th anniversary  National Magazine Awards* and Jan 30 (in just under two weeks) their competitor, the brand-new Magazine Grands Prix . 

Although there has been no indication by either organization to announce the total number of entries, a lot of small- and medium-sized publishers -- particularly independents and literary cultural titles -- to whom I've spoken felt it was an either-or proposition; to stick with entering the established awards or jump to entering the new ones, (though some may choose to enter both.) 

There has been a good deal of puzzlement and discussion about financial and creative choices being required. Either way, one indicator of the industry's views would be a comparison of total entries, a matter of participants voting with their entry fees, so to speak.

*(The NMA Magazine of the Year submissions are Jan 27; The NMA's Digital Publishing Awards deadline is Jan 31 .)

Related posts:

• Magawards unveils 40th anniversary logo
• Roster of international judges names to augment Magawards judging
• Can the Canadian magazine industry resolve the developing struggle over awards?
• Canadian Magazine Awards unveiled by Magazines Canada

Independent freelancers may submit to Magawards with reduced fees

The National Magazine Awards Foundation has announced its new Freelancer Support Fund. This allows writers and visual contributors to submit their own work to the magazine awards with the first 2 entries costing $50 each (the regular entry fee is $95). As before, as a registered charity all submissions to the Magawards are tax deductible. Submissions open December 1.

This warms up the rivalry with the inaugural Magazine Grands Prix, being piloted by Magazines Canada for 2017; fees for small magazines is $50 per submission (regular $100). Submissions open December 12.  No provision is apparently made to subsidize independent freelancers. 

Many freelancers rely on the magazines which publish them to pay their entry fees but some find it onerous to enter on their own, particularly in multiple categories.                                                                              

Magazine Grands Prix announces diversity as central tenet of judging process in new awards

One of the just-announced principles guiding the Magazine Grands Prix, the new awards program being piloted by Magazines Canada for 2017, is celebrating diversity. This includes having indigenous judges on the majority (eventually all) juries and to announce the entire roster of judges during the submission period (that is, in advance of their judging.) These are among principles included in the just-released  Guiding Principles for Adjudicating and Celebrating Excellence in Canada’s Magazine Media,

Stanley Péan
[photo: Laurence Labat]

There will be two judging co-chairs: author, commentator and critic Stanley Péan and award-winning writer Soraya Peerbaye. [see below]

Magazines Canada announced the awards and fellowship program [for up to 3 individuals] in September. The MGP awards will feature 26 categories: 13 awards for individuals and creators, and 13 for magazines that honour creative and editorial vision and execution.

“Stanley Péan and I are honoured and immensely pleased to be co-chairing the adjudication process of the Magazine Grands Prix,” said Peerbaye [in a release.] “The team at Magazines Canada has developed a far-seeing vision for the awards; energetic and generous, they are broadening the circle of inclusion, and invigorating the conversation on both popular and critical culture in the magazine sector.”

Soraya Peerbaye

Among the principles announced are:

• To build and execute an awards program that showcases the sector’s full range and excellence: seamlessly bilingual in English and French, reflective of Canada’s diversity, and open to all;
• To represent a diversity of artistic and cultural practices, perspectives and expertise on all juries, valuing the magazine sector’s creators and the public equally. Juries will be composed to reflect the diversity of Canada with regard to Indigenous peoples, race, regions, official languages, and gender;
• To have Indigenous jurists on the majority of the panels. This is just the beginning. The goal is to have Indigenous jurists on every single panel;
• To compose juries with care for plurality: no jury in which there is only one non-white jurist, and many in which there is a variety of diverse representatives. All jurists must feel able to speak freely and judge the submissions on their merits, without any obligation to represent minority or identity-based views;
• To reveal our entire roster of jurists during the submissions period [in this case between December 12 and January 30]: underrepresented communities must see themselves reflected and welcomed in order to participate fully;
• To aspire to do better than simply meeting the principles outlined and, in instances where we fall short of these goals, to recognize it and take action to improve.

“We are building a robust, transparent awards program that we can be proud of: right from the ground up,” said Matthew Holmes, Magazines Canada’s president and CEO. “With Canada’s 150th being celebrated next year, we wanted to look forward and make a very intentional shift to include the full diversity of Canada’s creators and—just as important—our community of readers, right into our judging process.”

The announcement of the guidelines and management of the judging process apparently intends to contrast directly with the way the National Magazine Awards Foundation has run its awards for the past 40 years. For instance, NMA judges  have generally not been announced before judging is completed and there is no provision for a particular makeup of judging panels other than requiring people from the industry, people with expertise in the subject area and people without a conflict of interest. The NMAs announced in September some major changes to its board and process for the magawards and also for its Digital Publishing Awards including the recruitment of a roster of international judges. . 

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