Ellie Awards 2019 Winners and Finalists

General Excellence

News, Sports and Entertainment
Honors publications covering politics, business, science and technology as well as society and culture

Winner: National Geographic

Finalists: The Marshall Project; New York; TIME; Wired

Service and Lifestyle
Honors publications covering fashion, food, travel and design as well as health, parenting, personal finance and active sports

Winner: T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Finalists: AFAR; Bon Appétit; Martha Stewart Living; Saveur

Special Interest
Honors publications serving highly defined reader communities, including city and regional magazines

Winner: Kazoo

Finalists: Audubon; Columbia Journalism Review; The Hollywood Reporter; Smithsonian

Literature, Science and Politics
Honors smaller-circulation general-interest magazines as well as publications covering media and the arts

Winner: Virginia Quarterly Review

Finalists: Aperture; Poetry; Popular Science; The Trace

Design and Photography

News and Opinion
Honors the visual excellence of print and digital magazines covering politics, business, technology and entertainment

Winner: Wired

Finalists: The California Sunday Magazine; National Geographic; New York; The New York Times Magazine

Service and Lifestyle
Honors the visual excellence of print and digital magazines covering fashion, food, travel and design

Winner: GQ Style

Finalists: AFAR; Bon Appétit; T: The New York Times Style Magazine; W

Feature Photography
Honors the use of photography in a feature story, photo-essay or photo portfolio

Winner: W for “Cate,” photographs by Cass Bird, Rineke Dijkstra, Dominique Issermann, Shirin Neshat, Jackie Nickerson, Sharna Osborne, Alex Prager, Viviane Sassen and Sam Taylor-Johnson, Volume 5

Finalists: GQ Style for “Three Days in Dakar,” photographs by Fanny Latour-Lambert, August 7, Fall; National Geographic for “Frenzy,” photographs by Laurent Ballesta, May; New York for “The Class of 1946-2018,” photographs by Michael Avedon, October 29–November 11; Rolling Stone for “The Survivors,” photographs by Patrick Brown, August

Website

News and Opinion
Honors magazine websites covering politics, business, technology and entertainment

Winner: The Marshall Project

Finalists: National Geographic; The New Yorker; Pitchfork; Topic

Service and Lifestyle
Honors magazine websites covering fashion, food, travel and design

Winner: Roads & Kingdoms

Finalists: Atlas Obscura; The Cut; Outside; SELF

Digital Innovation
Honors the outstanding use of digital technology in magazine storytelling

Winner: The New York Times Magazine for “The Voyages Issue,” September 21 at nytimes.com and on the New York Times mobile app and September 23 in print

Finalists: The Marshall Project in partnership with Longreads for “Banished” by Beth Schwartzapfel and Emily Kassie, October 3 at themarshallproject.org; Mic for “The Black Monuments Project,” February 1; The New Yorker for “Touchstones,” November 20; ProPublica and WNYC for “The Waiting Game,” April 23 at propublica.org

Social Media
Honors the outstanding use of social accounts by magazine websites and digital-only magazines

Winner: Bon Appétit

Finalists: Atlas Obscura; HarpersBazaar.com; National Geographic; ProPublica

Podcasting
Honors the outstanding use of audio content by magazine websites and digital-only magazines

Winner: Slate for three episodes of “Slow Burn”: “Deal or No Deal,” August 8, “Tell-All,” September 18, and “Move On,” October 17

Finalists: Broadly for three episodes of “Queerly Beloved”: “The Past Lovers,” September 12, “The Siblings,” September 26, and “The Artists,” October 30; Longreads in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting for three episodes of “Bundyville”: “The Battle,” “The Bomb” and “The Prophecy,” May 15, at longreads.com; The New Yorker and WNYC Studios for two episodes of “The New Yorker Radio Hour”: “The Long-Distance Con, Part 1,” September 28, and “The Long-Distance Con, Part 2,” October 5, at newyorker.com; Poetry for three episodes of “The Poetry Magazine Podcast”: “Hera Lindsay Bird Reads ‘Pyramid Scheme,’” February 19, “Danez Smith Reads ‘How Many of Us Have Them?,’” March 12, and “Martín Espada Reads ‘Letter to My Father,’” March 26

Video

News and Opinion
Honors coverage of politics, business, technology and entertainment

Winner: Topic for “Black 14,” directed by Darius Clark Monroe, March 6

Finalists: The Atlantic for “The Separated,” video by Jeremy Raff, September 7; Deadspin for “How Sinclair Turned News Anchors Into Soldiers in Trump’s War on the Media,” video by Timothy Burke, March 31; National Geographic for “Flint Students Celebrate Last Prom as High School Shuts Down,” directed by Jessica Dimmock and Zackary Canepari, July; Vanity Fair for “Billie Eilish: Same Interview, One Year Apart,” November 6

Service and Lifestyle
Honors coverage of fashion, food, travel and design

Winner: Topic for “Noodle School,” directed by Jia Li, September 10

Finalists: Atlas Obscura for “Bug Love,” video by John Picklap and Olivia Loomis Merrion, November 6; BuzzFeed News for “My Mom Took Care of Me for Top Surgery,” video by Branson LB, August 31, “What It’s Really Like Preparing for Top Surgery,” video by Sarah Karlan, September 2, and “What It’s Really Like Recovering From Top Surgery,” video by Sarah Karlan, September 5; HarpersBazaar.com for “The Real Crazy Rich Asians,” directed by Valerie Schenkman, August 15; Vogue for “You’re So Vain . . . ,” directed by Charlotte Wales, March 1, “Praise Be! The 28 Best Looks From the Paris Collections,” directed by Gordon von Steiner, March 22, and “Hadid, Hadid, Hadid!,” directed by Bardia Zeinali, September 24

Single-Topic Issue
Honors publications that have devoted a single print issue or a major digital package to the comprehensive examination of one subject

Winner: Popular Science for “The Tiny Issue,” Fall

Finalists: Allure for “The Culture of Hair,” March; New York for “Women and Power,” October 14 at thecut.com and October 15-28 in print; Sonoma for “The Fire Issue,” January/February; T: The New York Times Style Magazine for “New York City: 1981-1983,” April 22

Personal Service
Honors magazine journalism that serves readers’ needs and aspirations

Winner: 5280 for “The Art of Dying Well,” edited by Kasey Cordell and Lindsey B. Koehler, October

Finalists: Cosmopolitan for “Birth Control: Will It Become the Ultimate Luxury?," by Jennifer Gerson and Ashley Oerman, October 16 at cosmopolitan.com and November in print; Marie Claire for “Marie Claire's Guide to Having a Baby,” edited by Danielle McNally and Colleen McKeegan, October 1 at marieclaire.com, and “A Dream Destroyed,” by Kayla Webley Adler, October in print; Outside for "Rewilding the American Child," September; Women’s Health for “You've Got This, Mama,” by Kelly Mickle, November

Leisure Interests
Honors magazine journalism that provides practical information about recreational activities and special interests

Winner: New York for “How to Be an Artist,” by Jerry Saltz, November 26–December 9

Finalists: Field & Stream for “One Wild Summer,” June-July; Real Simple for “Backyard Bliss,” July; Thrillist for “Pizzafied,” edited by Matt Lynch; Whisky Advocate for “The Smoke Lovers' Issue,” Fall

Reporting
Honors reporting excellence as exemplified by one article or a series of articles

Winner: The New Yorker for "Shallow Graves," by Ben Taub, December 24 & 31

Finalists: The Atlantic for “American Hustler,” by Franklin Foer, March; Bloomberg Businessweek for "I Hereby Confess Judgment," by Zachary R. Mider and Zeke Faux, November 26; The California Sunday Magazine in partnership with Type Investigations for “Whatever’s Your Darkest Question, You Can Ask Me,” by Lizzie Presser, April 1; The New Yorker for “Four Women Accuse New York’s Attorney General of Physical Abuse,” by Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow, May 7, at newyorker.com, “Trouble at the Top,” by Ronan Farrow, August 6 & 13, and “As Leslie Moonves Negotiates His Exit From CBS, Six Women Raise New Assault and Harassment Claims,” by Ronan Farrow, September 9, at newyorker.com; Politico for “The Genocide the U.S. Didn't See Coming,” by Nahal Toosi, March/April; ProPublica with TIME for “Unprotected,” by Finlay Young, October 11 at propublica.org

Feature Writing
Honors original, stylish storytelling

Winner: The New Yorker for “A Theory of Relativity,” by Elif Batuman, April 30

Finalists: BuzzFeed News for “We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage,” by Christine Kenneally, August 27; The California Sunday Magazine for “A Kingdom From Dust,” by Mark Arax, February 4; Esquire for “This Place Is Crazy,” by John J. Lennon, Summer; New York for “Everyone Believed Larry Nassar,” by Kerry Howley, November 12–25; Smithsonian for “Taming the Lionfish,” by Jeff MacGregor, June; The Washington Post for “What Do We Owe Her Now?,” by Elizabeth Bruenig, August 19 at washingtonpost.com

Essays and Criticism
Honors interpretative and critical journalism

Winner: The New York Times Magazine for “Getting Out,” by Reginald Dwayne Betts, October 21

Finalists: The Atlantic for “A Warning From Europe,” by Anne Applebaum, October; The New Yorker for three articles by Jill Lepore: “It’s Still Alive,” February 12 & 19, “The Shorebird,” March 26, and “Misjudged,” October 8; Pacific Standard for “Silence Breaking Woman,” by Terese Marie Mailhot, May; Virginia Quarterly Review for “The Breakup Museum,” by Leslie Jamison, Spring

Columns and Commentary
Honors departments and features that exemplify the editorial mission of the publication

Winner: The New Yorker for three articles by Doreen St. Félix: “The National Geographic Twins and the Falsehood of Our Post-Racial Future,” March 14 at newyorker.com, “The Profound Presence of Doria Ragland,” May 21 at newyorker.com, and “The Ford-Kavanaugh Hearing Will Be Remembered as a Grotesque Display of Patriarchal Resentment,” September 27 at newyorker.com

Finalists: The Atlantic for three articles by Caitlin Flanagan: “The First Porn President,” May 3 at theatlantic.com, “I Believe Her,” September 17 at theatlantic.com, and “The Abandoned World of 1982,” September 25 at theatlantic.com; The Marshall Project in collaboration with Vice for three “Life Inside” columns: “Death Row’s First Ever Talent Show,” by George T. Wilkerson, March 22, “Getting Out of Prison Meant Leaving Dear Friends Behind,” by Robert Wright, May 31, and “What It's Like to Be a Cutter in Prison,” by Deidre McDonald, August 16, at themarshallproject.org; Philadelphia for three “Crankcase” columns by Sandy Hingston: “Alexa. That Bitch,” March, “The White Stuff,” August, and “Hair Piece,” October; Slate for three “Jurisprudence” columns by Dahlia Lithwick: “He Made Us All Victims and Accomplices,” December 13, 2017, “Rob Porter’s History of Domestic Abuse Wasn’t a Secret. It’s Just That No One Cared,” February 8, and “Our System Is Too Broken to Assess the Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh,” September 14

Public Interest
Honors magazine journalism that illuminates issues of national importance

Winner: The New Yorker for “No Refuge,” by Sarah Stillman, January 15

Finalists: HuffPost Highline for “The Best Way to Save People From Suicide,” by Jason Cherkis, November 15; National Geographic for three articles from “Planet or Plastic?”: “We Made It. We Depend on It. We’re Drowning in It. Plastic,” by Laura Parker, June, “What Happens to the Plastic We Throw Out,” June at nationalgeographic.com/magazine, and “Planet or Plastic’ Pledge,” June at nationalgeographic.com/environment; The New York Times Magazine for “The Hidden Toll,” by Linda Villarosa, April 15; ProPublica for three articles by Hannah Dreier: “A Betrayal,” co-published with New York, April 2, “The Disappeared,” co-published with Newsday, September 20, and “He Drew His School Mascot—and ICE Labeled Him a Gang Member,” co-published with The New York Times Magazine, December 27

All publication dates 2018 unless otherwise indicated