The Oscars of the Magazine Industry

Thursday is a big deal in the magazine industry—it’s the day that the National Magazine Awards gala will be held in New York City. It’s the Oscars of the magazine world and even though this year’s National Magazine Award nominees were a little predictable (like the Oscars), we’re taking a closer look at some the nominees this week. Also like the Oscars, there are a lot of awards—more than 20—so we’ve chosen only a few to highlight here.

We’ll take a look at the general excellence nominees, the smallest magazine nominated and of course, the top prize—Magazine of the Year.

This year is the 45th annual National Magazine Awards; the presenter of the awards is the American Society of Magazine Editors, a non-profit organization, established the awards in 1966. The group, also known as ASME, currently has about 850 members nationwide.

The awards honor magazines that demonstrate outstanding achievement of “editorial objectives, innovative editorial techniques, noteworthy journalistic enterprise and imaginative design.” Finalists and winners are selected in a two-step judging process. And instead of a gold statuette named Oscar, winners take home stabiles known as an Ellie, for its likeness to an elephant.

In the first four years of the National Magazine Awards, Look, Life and Newsweek magazine were among the first magazines presented with awards. Over the years the awards categories have expanded and include feature writing, design, photography, public service, single-topic issue and visual excellence. 

Recent winners include Reader’s Digest, GQ, Backpacker magazine, Mother Jones and National Geographic magazine.

Comments

[Computer Support Miami]

the nominees might be predictable, but there's been some surprizes with the winners, so you neverknow. All in all, I'm curious to see if my favorites get it.

[executive development]

Well, I was expecting the nominees will look like this but it is only because these are very good magazines. Let's wait to see who is the winner.