Reader's Digest, Field & Stream Take Top Honors at Ellies
Friday, May 1, 2009
Iris Dorbian
There may have been a few cursory references to the killer economy, yet nothing put a damper on the high spirits on display at last night's National Magazine Awards held at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. Presented by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the "Ellies" honor excellence in magazines, both print and online, in more than 20 categories. Big winners of the night were Backpacker, Esquire,  The New Yorker and Wired, all of which snagged three Ellies each; however, the crowd, composed of the magazine world glitterati, let out yelps of joy and true expressions of surprise when Reader's Digest and Field & Stream, a first-time winner won the top awards in General Excellence.
Accepting the Ellie on behalf of Reader's Digest, new editor-in-chief Peggy Northrop was visibly choked with emotion. "I didn't write a clever speech or get botox or anything," she joked, eliciting roars of laughter. "I'm truly surprised. Remaking this incredible American icon has been the hardest fun I've ever had."
Another highlight of the evening was when a glamorous quartet of magazine legends—Jann Wenner (publisher/editor of Rolling Stone), Graydon Carter (editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair), Tina Brown (editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast) and Anna Wintour (editor of Vogue)—presented a special honorary award to photographer extraordinaire Annie Leibovitz. "I spent half of my working life working along with Annie," said Carter. "Nobody has the eye she has. If you have seen an iconic photo the last 40 years, chances are it was taken by Annie." Accepting the honor from the four, Leibovitz said she owed a special debt to fabled photographers that preceded her, such as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus, but also noted that magazines were the medium that afforded her the opportunity to exercise her craft.
In addition to Field & Stream, other first-time winners were AARP The Magazine, Automobile and The New York Times Magazine.
The 2009 National Magazine Award winners are:
Reader’s Digest for General Excellence (over 2,000,000 circulation)
Field & Stream for General Excellence (1,000,000 to 2,000,000 circulation)
Wired for General Excellence (500,000 to 1,000,000 circulation)
Texas Monthly for General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation)
Foreign Policy for General Excellence (100,000 to 250,000 circulation)
Print for General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation)
Saveur for Single-topic Issue
Wired for Magazine Section
The New York Times Magazine for Reporting
Bicycling for Public Interest
Esquire for Feature Writing
Rolling Stone for Profile Writing
Backpacker for Essays
Automobile for Columns and Commentary
The New Yorker for Reviews and Criticism
The New Yorker for Fiction
Esquire for Personal Service
Esquire for Leisure Interests
Wired for Design
GQ for Photography
National Geographic for Photojournalism
The New Yorker for Photo Portfolio
Backpacker.com for General Excellence Online (less than 1 million uniques)
nymag.com for General Excellence Online (1 million uniques and above)
Backpacker.com for Personal Service Online
AARP The Magazine Online for Interactive Feature
If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com
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