The National Magazine Awards are a series of American awards that honor excellence in the magazine industry. They are sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors and administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, New York. The awards have been presented annually since 1966.
They are generally considered the highest award in the magazine industry; in the magazine world, they are roughly equivalent to the Pulitzer Prizes (which are far more widely known in the popular culture, but do not include a magazine category).
Recipients of awards are selected in a two-step procedure: First, entries are reviewed by a judging panel, which recommends a group of finalists; then, a second panel of judges chooses one winner in each category. Categories include:
- General Excellence
- Personal Service
- Leisure Interests
- Reporting
- Public Interest
- Feature Writing
- Profile Writing
- Essays
- Columns and Commentary
- Reviews and Criticism
- Magazine Section
- Single-Topic Issue
- Design
- Photography
- Photojournalism
- Photo Portfolio
- Fiction
- General Excellence Online
- Personal Service Online
- Interactive Feature
Winners in each of the categories are awarded an "Ellie", a copper-colored stabile sculpture by Alexander Calder, resembling an elephant, which is manufactured by New York firm Society Awards. The National Magazine Awards web site has a searchable database of all the winners and top-five finalists.
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or magazine:
“In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“Any one who knows what the worth of family affection is among the lower classes, and who has seen the array of little portraits stuck over a labourer’s fireplace ... will perhaps feel with me that in counteracting the tendencies, social and industrial, which every day are sapping the healthier family affections, the sixpenny photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists in the world.”
—Macmillan’s Magazine (London, September 1871)