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About the National Magazine Awards First presented in 1966, the National Magazine Awards are sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and are administered by ASME. As many as 250 magazines and websites enter the awards annually, submitting 1,000-plus entries in 18 categories ranging from Reporting and Feature Writing to Podcasting and Video. The awards are judged in mid-January by more than 250 writers, editors, art directors, photo editors and educators. The winners of the National Magazine Awards are announced in April; the awards are presented to the winners at a reception in June. Each winner receives a copper “Ellie,” modeled on the symbol of the awards, Alexander Calderʼs 1942 stabile “Elephant Walking.” The ASME Award for Fiction, the ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration and the ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 are judged and presented with the National Magazine Awards. Selection of Finalists and Winners Judging results are subject to the approval of the National Magazine Awards Board, which is composed of current and former officers of ASME, representatives of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and veteran judges. Awards may be withheld in any category in which the entries fall below the standard of excellence set by the ASME Board of Directors or in which the number of entries is deemed insufficient by the administrators of the awards. The Work of the Judges Each judge is assigned two partners who screen the same entries. Judges meet with their judging partners to discuss their assigned entries before the judging begins. Judging groups begin the first day of judging by reviewing judging criteria. Judging partners then present their evaluations of the entries they have screened. The judging group decides, based on screener evaluations and group discussion, which entries should be eliminated from consideration and which assigned to other judges for further evaluation. Judging groups are expected to identify a long list of 10 to 20 potential finalists, depending on the number of entries in the category, no later than the end of the first day of judging. Every member of the judging group is expected to read, view or listen to every potential finalist on the long list before their group reconvenes on Zoom for the second day of judging. After a short list of approximately 10 potential nominees has been selected by the group, the group chooses the finalists, including the winner, in the category. A Very Short History of the National Magazine Awards Patrick said at the same time that ASME would, at its first meeting, “discuss again the much-discussed business of magazine awards.” The National Magazine Awards were established soon after by ASME, led by its executive director, Robert E. Kenyon Jr., working with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The first National Magazine Award was presented to Look in 1966 "for its skillful editing, imagination and editorial integrity, all of which were reflected particularly in its treatment of the racial issue during 1965." The first award for digital content—the category was called General Excellence in New Media—was won by Money in 1997. The ASME Award for Fiction, the ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration and the ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 are now judged and presented with the National Magazine Awards. Honorees are chosen the same way winners of the National Magazine Awards are decided. The ASME Award for Fiction replaced the National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2017. Intended to celebrate the historic link between literary fiction and magazine journalism, the award honors magazines and websites for excellence in fiction as demonstrated by three examples of short fiction. Founded in 2019, the ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration honor magazines and websites for individual examples of visual excellence. The awards celebrate the unique importance of design, photography and illustration to the practice of magazine journalism both in print and online. The ASME NEXT Awards were established in 2015 to support the development of print and digital media by honoring outstanding achievement by early-career journalists. Five honorees are chosen each year and receive medals bearing the likeness of Alexander Calder’s “Elephant Walking,” the symbol of the National Magazine Awards. The National Magazine Award is a reproduction of Alexander Calder’s “Elephant Walking,” 1942, the copyright for which is held by the Calder Foundation and used with permission. Copyright © 2020 Calder Foundation, New York. Calder® is a registered trademark of and
Amanda Kludt Senior Editor, Projects and Initiatives, The New York Times | President Sidney Holt Executive Director About ASME
Jelani Cobb Dean and Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism About Columbia Journalism School |
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