NYT Mag Wins Big at Virtual National Magazine Awards
The Sunday insert earned five total awards, including a coveted General Excellence nod, while two perennial favorites were shut out.

The New York Times Magazine was the top winner at this year’s National Magazine Awards (commonly referred to as the “Ellies”), which were held as a virtual ceremony Thursday evening after the annual gala, originally set for Brooklyn in mid-March, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the broadcast’s end, the Sunday magazine had received five awards, the most of any individual title, including its first-ever win for General Excellence, which is awarded across four categories based on publication type and is considered the program’s top honor.

The magazine also won for feature writing, reporting, podcasting and public interest, the latter two specifically for “The 1619 Project,” which also received a Pulitzer Prize three weeks ago. In total, The New York Times Magazine has now earned 11 Ellie Awards since 2017, according to the American Society of Magazine Editors, which administers the awards in partnership with Columbia Journalism School.

Much shorter in duration than the glitzy galas of years past (as a matter of practicality, there were no acceptance speeches, apart from a handful of awards with previously announced winners), this year’s ceremony took on a different type of intimate feel, with editors like Time‘s Edward Felsenthal, Wired‘s Nicholas Thompson, Cosmopolitan‘s Jessica Pels or ASME VP Janice Min announcing each category’s winners in pre-recorded messages from their homes—with the exception of Hearst Autos’ editorial director, Joe Brown, who recorded his intro from the driver’s seat of his (parked) car.

Right behind The New York Times Magazine were Bon Appétit, which won four awards, including a General Excellence win in the lifestyle category and additional wins for design, video and leisure interests, as well as National Geographic, which won for photography (its 10th Ellie in that category), feature photography, feature design and social media.

In the special interest category, the General Excellence award went to The Hollywood Reporter, crediting former longtime editorial director Matthew Belloni, who stepped down from that role in April amid disagreements with owner Valence Media.

The fourth General Excellence award, in the literature, science and politics category, went to Quanta, an eight-year-old digital magazine covering advancements in science and mathematics, which was not only a first-time Ellie winner but also a first-time finalist.

But in perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening, two titles that have dominated the Ellie Awards in recent years, New York magazine and The New Yorker, were both shut out entirely. By comparison, the two magazines combined for 11 Ellies in 2018 and 2019 alone. This year, New York was named a finalist in eight categories, while The New Yorker was a finalist in seven.

And notably absent at this year’s awards, even among the finalists, was the nation’s largest consumer magazine publisher, Meredith Corp., despite being a regular participant in prior years and having multiple employees serve on this year’s list of judges.

After several more winners were announced, including a first-timer in The Washington Post Magazine, in the single-topic issue category, one of the last big honors of the evening went to former Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger, who was this year’s inductee into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame, introduced by journalist Tom Junod, himself a two-time Ellie Award winner who wrote for Granger at both Esquire and GQ.

“[David] was a true believer,” said Junod. “He believed in magazines, he believed in the people who worked for magazines, and he believed in me. The power of that belief changed my life and gave me the courage to do things that I never thought were possible.”

“Nearly every day I worked at Esquire, I was fairly certain I was going to get fired,” commented Granger in turn, after thanking several former colleagues, writers, editors and designers. “It dawned on me early, that given the certainty of my fate, my goal should be to do the things I’d be proudest of after I got shit-canned. So I did.”

View the full list of winners and finalists below (winners are in bold):

General Excellence: News, Sports and Entertainment

• The California Sunday Magazine
• ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Cover Story
• The Marshall Project
• New York
• The New York Times Magazine

General Excellence: Service and Lifestyle

• Bon Appétit
• Cosmopolitan
• National Geographic Traveler
• SELF
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine

General Excellence: Special Interest

• Atlanta
• Audubon
• The Hollywood Reporter
• National Parks
• The Trace

General Excellence: Literature, Science and Politics

• Aperture
• Oxford American
• Quanta
• Stranger’s Guide
• Virginia Quarterly Review

Design

• 1843
• Bon Appétit
• Fast Company
• GQ
• New York

Photography

• Aperture
• GQ
• National Geographic
• TIME
• WSJ. The Wall Street Journal Magazine

Feature Design

• Bon Appétit for “The Hot 10: America’s Best New Restaurants 2019”
• National Geographic for “Countdown to a New Era in Space”
• National Geographic for “Vanishing”
• New York for “How to Major in Unicorn”
• Vox with support from the Pulitzer Center for “These 3 Supertrees Can Protect Us From Climate Collapse”

Feature Photography

• National Geographic for “The Immortal Corpse,” photographs by Lynn Johnson
• New York for “America Has a New National Pastime,” photographs by Martin Schoeller
• The New York Times Magazine for “Brothers, Sisters, Strangers,” photographs by Eli Baden-Lasar
• The New Yorker for “Ghost Towers,” photographs by Hashem Shakeri
• TIME for “A Harbinger of Things to Come,” photographs by Adam Ferguson

Website

• Emergence
• The Marshall Project
• New York
• SELF
• Vox

Digital Innovation

• The Believer with support from the Tran Thi Oanh Black Mountain Institute Fund for “Cabramatta,” by Matt Huynh
• Emergence in partnership with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival for “Language Keepers,” by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
• The Marshall Project in partnership with the Guardian for “Detained,” by Emily Kassie
• National Geographic for “The Atlas of Moons”
• ProPublica in partnership with the Charleston Gazette-Mail for “A Guide to Every Permitted Natural Gas Well in West Virginia,” by Al Shaw, ProPublica, and Kate Mishkin, The Charleston Gazette-Mail

Social Media

• Bon Appétit for “Thanksgiving”
• Mother Jones for “Disinformation”
• National Geographic for “Wildlife Tourism”
• The New Yorker for “The Food Issue”
• SELF for “Reproductive Healthcare”

Podcasting

• Gimlet for two episodes of “Reply All”: “Feral Hogs,” hosted by PJ Vogt, and “The Real Enemy,” hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman
• Longreads in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting for three episodes of “Bundyville: The Remnant”: “The Explosion,” “The Bomber” and “The Martyr”
• The New York Times Magazine for three episodes of “1619,” hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones: “The Fight for a True Democracy,” “The Economy That Slavery Built” and “The Birth of American Music”
• The New York Times Magazine for three episodes of “Still Processing,” hosted by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham: “Yeehaw,” “Chappelle” and “Wake”
• ProPublica and WNYC for three episodes of “Trump, Inc.”: “How a Nigerian Presidential Candidate Hired a Trump Lobbyist and Ended Up in Trump’s Lobby,” hosted by Ilya Marritz and Meg Cramer; “Ukraine,” by Andrea Bernstein, Katie Zavadski, Jake Pearson and Ilya Marritz; and “The Diplomat, the Machers, and the Oligarch,” hosted by Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein

Video

• Bon Appétit with Condé Nast Entertainment for three episodes of “Gourmet Makes” with Claire Saffitz: “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Ferrero Rocher,” “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Hot Pockets” and “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Ruffles”
• National Geographic for “She Donated Her Body to Science, and Now She’ll Live Forever,” by Lynn Johnson
• The New Yorker for “A Line Birds Cannot See,” directed and produced by Amy Bench
• Topic for “Dieorama,” directed by Kevin Staake
• VICE News for “Outlaw Erections,” by Oliver Noble, Michael Shade and Jed Oelbaum

Single-Topic Issue

• Bloomberg Businessweek for “The Elements”
• MIT Technology Review for  “The China Issue”
• National Geographic for “A World on the Move”
• Popular Science for “Make It Last”
• The Washington Post Magazine for “Prison”

Personal Service

• Audubon for “Start Here! Your Guide to Climate Action,” reporting and editing by Andrew Del-Colle, Breanna Draxler, Kevin Dupzyk, Rene Ebersole, Martha Harbison, Janet Marinelli, Andy McGlashen and Hannah Waters
• Cosmopolitan for “Your Non-Scary Guide to Going to Rehab,” by Andrea Stanley, and “How to Go to Rehab,” by Kiera Carter and Kaitlin Menza
• O, The Oprah Magazine for “The Agony and, Yes, the Ecstasy of Menopause,” by Robin Marantz Henig
• Philadelphia for “Ouch,” by Brian Howard, and “Win the War on Drugs,” by Gina Tomaine
• SELF for “Black Maternal Mortality”

Leisure Interests

• 5280 for “Sheer Beauty,” by Lindsey B. King
• Bon Appétit for “Absolutely Perfect,” by Alex Beggs, and “Making Perfect: Thanksgiving”
• New York for “The Great Pod Rush Has Only Just Begun”
• Texas Monthly for “Long Live Honky Tonks!” by Christian Wallace
• Whisky Advocate for “The World’s Greatest Whisky Cities”

Reporting

• Fortune for “Epidemic of Fear,” by Erika Fry
• Mother Jones in partnership with Type Investigations for “Inside the US Marshals’ Secretive, Deadly Detention Empire,” by Seth Freed Wessler
• New York for “Before, and After, the Jogger,” by Sarah Weinman
• The New York Times Magazine in partnership with ProPublica for “False Witness,” by Pamela Colloff
• The Verge for two articles by Casey Newton: “The Trauma Floor” and “Bodies in Seats”

Feature Writing

• The Believer for “Las Marthas,” by Jordan Kisner
• Bloomberg Businessweek for “Vanillanomics,” by Monte Reel
• Harper’s Magazine for “Lost at Sea,” by Joe Kloc
• The New York Times Magazine for “All That Glitters,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Schoolteacher and the Genocide,” by Sarah A. Topol
• The New Yorker for “Unlike Any Other,” by Nick Paumgarten
• Texas Monthly for “Angels in East Texas,” by Wes Ferguson

Profile Writing

• The Georgia Review for “Jerry’s Dirt,” by Jacob Baynham
• New York for “Elizabeth Warren’s Classroom Strategy,” by Rebecca Traister
• New York for “Walking Time Bomb,” by Amy Wallace
• The New York Times Magazine for “Rick Steves Wants to Set You Free,” by Sam Anderson
• The New Yorker for “What Are You Laughing At?” by Vinson Cunningham

Essays and Criticism

• The Believer for “Good Shepherds,” by Meghan O’Gieblyn
• Pitchfork for three reviews by Rawiya Kameir: “Ariana Grande: ‘thank u, next,’” “Lizzo: ‘Cuz I Love You’” and “Kanye West: ‘Jesus Is King’”
• Poetry for “Tactile Art,” by John Lee Clark
• The Nation in partnership with Type Media Center for “India: Intimations of an Ending,” by Arundhati Roy
• Virginia Quarterly Review for “The Ladder Up,” by Carina del Valle Schorske

Columns and Commentary

• Catapult for three columns by s.e. smith: “When Disability Is a Toxic Legacy,” “The Ugly Beautiful and Other Failings of Disability Representation” and “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Mental Health and Medication”
• Foreign Policy for four articles from “Decoder”: “India Has a Mindset Problem,” by Ravi Agrawal; “Why Young Koreans Love to Splurge,” by Jeongmin Kim; “Repent for Your Frequent Flyer Miles!” by Peter Kuras; and “Ukrainian Corruption Is Trump’s Native Language,” by Marci Shore
• The New Yorker for three columns by Jia Tolentino: “Kanye West’s Sunday Service Is Full of Longing and Self-Promotion,” “Love, Death, and Begging for Celebrities to Kill You” and “E. Jean Carroll’s Accusation Against Donald Trump, and the Raising, and Lowering, of the Bar”
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine for three columns by Ligaya Mishan: “Nothing Sacred,” “An Assault on the Tongue” and “Interlopers”
• Texas Monthly for three columns by Sterry Butcher: “Lines Through the Sand,” “Thoughts on a Mixed-up Horse” and “Man of Letters”

Public Interest

• Consumer Reports for three articles by Rachel Rabkin Peachman: “Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper Should Be Recalled, Consumer Reports Says,” “Decades-Old Law Hides Dangerous Products and Impedes Recalls” and “Inclined Sleeper Deaths Rise to 50 as Industry Continues to Sell the Products”
• The New York Times Magazine for “The 1619 Project”
• The New York Times Magazine for “The China Connection,” by Alex W. Palmer
• ProPublica for three articles from the series “Disaster in the Pacific”: “Fight the Ship,” by T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi; “Blame Over Justice,” by Megan Rose; and “Faulty Equipment, Lapsed Training, Repeated Warnings,” by Robert Faturechi, Megan Rose and T. Christian Miller
• Texas Monthly and the Texas Tribune with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists for  “No Defense,” by Neena Satija

Previously announced:

ASME Award for Fiction

• The Paris Review for “Under the Ackee Tree,” by Jonathan Escoffery; “Foxes,” by Kimberly King Parsons; and “Howl Palace,” by Leigh Newman 
• Ecotone for “Horse,” by Dawna Kemper; “Organ Cave,” by Mesha Maren; and “Waltz,” by Erin Somers
• The New Yorker for “Javi,” by Han Ong; “God’s Caravan,” by Tiphanie Yanique; and “The Trip,” by Weike Wang
• Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern for “Ghost Lover,” by Lisa Taddeo; “After the Birds,” by Ope Adedeji; and “The Woman in the Closet,” by Mimi Lok
• Zoetrope: All-Story for “24, Alhaji Williams Street,” by ’Pemi Aguda; “The Grotesques,” by Sarah Hall; and “Downstream,” by Thomas Pierce

ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30

• Tyler Foggatt, Associate Editor, The New Yorker
• Jazmine Hughes, Staff Editor, The New York Times Magazine
• Miles Kohrman, Special Projects Editor, The Trace
• Natalie Krebs, Senior Editor, Outdoor Life and Field & Stream
• Sarah Esther Maslin, Brazil Correspondent, The Economist

Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame

David Granger
Award presented by Tom Junod