sign in sign up
<<
Home , Adam Moss, National Magazine Awards

Acknowledgments

his edition of Best American Writing collects Tarticles honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors at the presentation of the in March 2019. The Best American Magazine Writing series began in 2000 and has been published by Columbia Uni- versity Press since 2005, but the history of the National Maga- zine Awards dates to the early 1960s, when ASME and Colum- bia University founded the program as a counterpart to the . More than half a century later ASME continues to sponsor the awards in association with the Columbia School of Journalism. The first National Magazine Award— there was only one award presented in the first four years of the program— 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.” Look at the time was one of the largest general interest in the , with a cir- culation of more than 7 million, but from the beginning ASME strove to honor a broad range of publications. The same yearLook won the first National Magazine Award, three magazines—Ebony , Grade Teacher, and Scientific American— were presented Certifi- cates of Special Recognition, and nine received commendations, including for “its flair for dramatic innovation xx Acknowledgments

as demonstrated by its publication of Truman Capote’s ‘,’ ” Time for “its well researched, expertly written and bal- anced series of ‘TIME Essays,’ ” and Vogue for “its effective use of color in editorial pages.” In 2019, the New Yorker, Time, and Vogue were again among the National Magazine Awards honorees, but the categories in which they were finalists go far toward explaining the changes that have overtaken both the awards program and the very nature of magazine journalism in recent years. Both Time and the New Yorker were nominated in Reporting, a category that was first introduced in 1970 (and that the New Yorker has won on thirteen separate occasions), but the New Yorker was also nom- inated in Website and Podcasting. And Vogue was a repeat finalist in Video—work, let alone a category, unimaginable to magazine editors in 1966. Yet despite these changes, the purpose of the awards has remained the same: to advance the practice of jour- nalism by recognizing excellence, enterprise, and innovation. The articles collected inBest American Magazine Writing 2019 evince these three qualities while demonstrating the enduring power of magazine journalism. What makes magazines special? Deep reporting, informed analysis, stylish writing, a distinctive point of view. This collection begins with examples of extraordi- nary reportage, continues with often- provocative commentary and opinion, and concludes with the kind of service journal- ism and feature stories rarely found outside the pages—print or digital—of a magazine. Some of these stories address subjects readers in 1966 would have recognized: racism, political corrup- tion, foreign- policy blunders. Others reflect unforeseen changes, both the good and the terrifying: new demographics, #MeToo, climate crisis. But each bears the distinctive stamp not only of the writer but also of the editor who assigned it. This year the editors of 275 publications entered the National Magazine Awards. Fourteen hundred entries were received. Half of the entries were published in print; the others were either a xxi Acknowledgments combination of print and digital content or digital only. The nearly 300 judges were assigned preliminary reading in mid- December then met at in mid-January to choose five finalists in twenty of the twenty- two categories and seven final- ists (because of the number of entries) in Reporting and Feature Writing. The judges then chose the winner in each category. After the judges finished their work, the National Magazine Awards board, composed of current and former ASME officers, veteran judges, and representatives of the Columbia Journalism School, reviewed and sanctioned the results. Sixty-seven media organizations received nominations in 2019, led by the New Yorker with nine. TheNew Yorker also received the most awards— four— nearly sweeping the narrative- journalism categories by winning Reporting, Feature Writing, Columns and Commentary, and Public Interest. Each of the win- ning publications received a copper “Ellie,” modeled on Alexander Calder’s stabile Elephant Walking, which has been the symbol of the National Magazine Awards since 1970, when the recipients of the first four awards—Look , Life, , and American Machinist—purchased it from Calder and gave it to ASME. The National Magazine Awards are now familiarly known as the Ellies as a result. There is more information about the judges, the final- ists and the winners—as well as links to honorees in catego- ries such as Video, Podcasting and Social Media—to be found at http://ellies2019 . org / . Hundreds of magazine journalists make the Ellies possible. Among them are the editors in chief who choose to enter the awards; the assistant, associate, and senior editors who orga- nize the submissions; the judges who receive dozens of stories to read the week before the year- end holidays begin then fly to New York in the middle of January (when visitors to Columbia can feel the wind whipping off the Hudson River) to spend two days reading, debating and voting in sometimes cramped classrooms; and the reporters, photographers, story editors, and art directors xxii Acknowledgments

who wait hopefully for the announcement of the finalists and winners then go back to work, regardless of the results. All of them deserve our thanks. The ASME board of directors is responsible for overseeing the administration, judging, and presentation of the Ellie Awards, which include not only the National Magazine Awards but also the ASME Award for Fiction and the ASME Next Awards for Jour- nalists Under 30. The sixteen members of the 2018– 2019 board— all of whom were the editors in chief of well- known print and digital publications— are listed at http:// ellies2019 . org / . The suc- cess of the 2019 Ellies was especially the work of the president of ASME, Christopher Keyes, who, despite his responsibilities as the editor in chief of Outside, was willing to tackle each new chal- lenge. I also want to acknowledge the contributions of Jim Nelson, the former editor in chief of GQ, who, long before he joined the ASME board, helped contemporize the Ellies. As director of operations at ASME, Nina Fortuna is largely responsible for the day- to- day running of the Ellies. Everyone who knows anything about the National Magazine Awards knows that Nina is the first person to ask when questions need to be answered. I also want to express my gratitude to my colleagues at the MPA— the Association of Magazine Media— especially Patty Bogie and John DeFrancesco, for their invaluable assistance. ASME is also thankful to Steve Coll, the Pulitzer Prize– winning reporter who now serves as the dean and Henry R. Luce Profes- sor of Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School, and Abi Wright, the executive director of professional prizes at Columbia, for their continuing support of the National Magazine Awards. On behalf of ASME, I want to thank John Avlon for hosting the presentation of the 2019 awards. Now a senior political ana- lyst at CNN, John was for many years a member of ASME and frequently served as a National Magazine Awards judge when he was editor in chief of . I also want to thank David McCormick of McCormick Literary for representing ASME as xxiii Acknowledgments our literary agent. The editors of the Best American Magazine Writing series at Columbia University Press are Philip Leven- thal and Michael Haskell. Philip’s enthusiasm for the work rep- resented in this book is always a source of inspiration. Michael’s editorial skill and gentle determination ensures that the book not only reads well but gets printed. This year for the first time, Best American Magazine Writing 2019 includes interviews with two of the award winners, the New Yorker’s Ben Taub and McSweeney’s Claire Boyle. I want to thank Eric Sullivan, senior editor at Esquire, and Karolina Waclawiak, executive editor, culture, at , for conducting the interviews—and for giving readers of this book new insight into the work the Ellies are intended to celebrate. Both Eric and Karolina also serve as awards judges, so I am doubly apprecia- tive of their contributions to ASME. In his introduction to this book, explores the timeless appeal of magazine journalism. As the editor of New York and, earlier, Magazine and 7 Days, Adam set the standard for both print and digital journalism and won more than forty National Magazine Awards. In recognition of his accomplishments, ASME this year elected him to the Maga- zine Editors’ Hall of Fame. I want to thank Adam for writing the introduction but most of all for decades of incomparable magazine making. Yet the last word as always belongs to the writers who graciously consented to the publication of their stories in Best American Magazine Writing 2019. Their work makes winners of us all.