ASME ANNOUNCES NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS 2025 FINALISTS

Nominees for ASME Award for Fiction and ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration also named; winners to be announced April 10

New York (February 13, 2025)—The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is today announcing the finalists for the 60th annual National Magazine Awards. One of the most prestigious journalism-awards programs in the United States, the National Magazine Awards are sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Originally limited to print magazines, the awards now honor magazine storytelling published in any medium, including newspapers and newsletters.

ASME is also announcing the finalists for the eighth annual ASME Award for Fiction and the sixth annual ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration.

ASME will name the winners of the 2025 awards, including the recipients of the ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30, on Thursday, April 10. The winners will receive their awards at a reception hosted by ASME at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in June.

“The finalists for the 60th anniversary National Magazine Awards speak to the same topics magazines were covering more than half a century ago—racism, corruption and abuse but also entertainment, service and lifestyle,” said Sidney Holt, the executive director of ASME. “Along with the finalists for the Fiction and Design, Photography and Illustration awards, the honorees amply demonstrate the enduring power of magazine storytelling, whether in print or online, as a magazine or newspaper article, newsletter, podcast or video.”

More than 70 media organizations are finalists for National Magazine Awards this year. Twenty-two publications received multiple nominations, including New York and The New Yorker, both with seven nominations, followed by The New York Times Magazine with six and The Marshall Project and Mother Jones, both with four. National Geographic, ProPublica and The Washington Post each received three nominations.

Two nominations were received by 14 media organizations, including Aperture, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, Eater, Esquire, Guardian US, Harper’s Magazine, Long Lead, New York Times Opinion, STAT, Texas Monthly, The Verge and Washington Post Opinions.

Also finalists for National Magazine Awards are 1843 Magazine; 5280; The American Scholar; The Atavist; Bicycling; The Bitter Southerner; Cement City Productions for Audacy; The Center for Public Integrity; Defector; Deseret; Food & Wine; The Food Section; Full Pour; Glamour; Good Housekeeping; Harper’s Bazaar; Heatmap News; Higher Ground Productions with Pineapple Street Studios and Audible Originals; Inquest; Kazoo; McSweeney’s Quarterly; Men’s Health; NBC News; The Outlaw Ocean Project; Philadelphia; Pioneer Works Broadcast; Quanta; Rest of World; Rolling Stone; SAVEUR; Switchyard; T: The New York Times Style Magazine; Tricycle: The Buddhist Review; Undark; Virginia Quarterly Review; W Magazine; WIRED; Wondery and Crooked Media with PushBlack; and The Yale Review.

Nominated for partnerships with other media organizations were The Assembly with The Food Section; Montana Free Press with ProPublica; Reveal and PRX with The Center for Public Integrity and Mother Jones; and Reveal, USA Today and PRX with The Marshall Project and Mother Jones.

The five finalists for the ASME Award for Fiction are The Georgia Review, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Yale Review and Zoetrope: All-Story.

Twenty-seven media organizations are finalists for ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration. The New Yorker received five nominations; New York and ProPublica both received three. Two nominations were received by The Atlantic, Mother Jones, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, New York Times Opinion, Noema, TIME, The Verge and W Magazine. Also nominated were Allure, Eater, GQ, InStyle, The Marshall Project, POLITICO, Road & Track, Rolling Stone, SELF, Stranger’s Guide with Coda Story, Summit Journal, Texas Monthly, Wisconsin Watch with ProPublica, and Women’s Health.

National Magazine Awards 2025 Finalists

1. General Excellence, News, Sports and Entertainment

• National Geographic
• New York
• The New Yorker
• ProPublica
• The Verge

2. General Excellence, Service and Lifestyle

• Eater
• Esquire
• Glamour
• Harper’s Bazaar
• SAVEUR

3. General Excellence, Special Interest

• Full Pour
• Inquest
• Kazoo
• The Marshall Project
• STAT

4. General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics

• Aperture
• The Bitter Southerner
• Mother Jones
• Undark
• Virginia Quarterly Review

5. Design

• McSweeney’s Quarterly for McSweeney’s Seventy-Fourth Edition, including Lunchbox, Author Cards and The McSweeney’s Anthology of Contemporary Literature
• New York for “The Television Issue,” June 3-16, “Can the Media Survive?,” October 21-November 3, and “Reasons to Love New York,” December 2-15
• New York Times Opinion for “A Life Without a Home,” “Donald Trump’s First Term Is a Warning” and “At the Brink”
• Pioneer Works Broadcast for Issue 2 and “How Has Adderall Changed the Way We Work and Live?” @pioneerworks on Instagram
• Rest of World for “The Changing Face of Protest,” “2024 AI Elections Tracker” and “Digital Divinity”

6. Photography

• The Atlantic for “Ukraine's Shock Will Last for Generations,” photographs by Jędrzej Nowicki, “The Great Serengeti Land Grab,” photographs by Nichole Sobecki, and “Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap,” photographs by Lynsey Addario
• New York for “Polyamory,” January 15–28, “One of Everything, To Go,” photographs by Bobby Doherty, and “Can the Media Survive?,” portfolio by Paul Kooiker
• New York Times Opinion for “A Life Without a Home,” photographs by Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Paul D’Amato, Ricardo Nagaoka, Tamara Reynolds and Adam Pape, “Looking for the Missing People of Mexico,” photographs by Manuel Bayo Gisbert, and “The Price,” photographs by An-My Lê
• The New Yorker for “A Safe Haven for Late Abortions,” photographs by Maggie Shannon, “A Campus in Crisis,” photographs by Nina Berman, and “Sorry I'm Not Your Clown Today,” photographs by Ryan McGinley
• W Magazine for “The Surreal Deal,” photographs by Rafael Pavarotti, “The Originals Issue” cover, photograph by Rihanna, and “Woman in the City,” with Robert Longo, photographs by Nick Brinley

7. Podcasting

• Cement City Productions for Audacy for three episodes of “Cement City,” hosted by Jeanne Marie Laskas: “Chapter 1: I’ll Die Here,” “Chapter 4: Big Day in a Little Town” and “Chapter 8: Don’t Bitch About the Smog”
• The Center for Public Integrity with Reveal and Mother Jones from PRX for three episodes of “40 Acres and a Lie,” hosted by Al Letson: “Part 1,” “Part 2” and “Part 3”
• Higher Ground Productions with Pineapple Street Studios and Audible Originals for three episodes of “The Wonder of Stevie,” hosted by Wesley Morris: “Episode 3: Innervisions | 1973,” “Episode 5: Songs in the Key of Life | 1976” and “Episode 6: Confetti Cannon | 1979–Infinity”
• The Washington Post for one episode of “Post Reports”: “Bacon: The Best-Kept Secret in Washington,” hosted by Shane Harris
• Wondery and Crooked Media with PushBlack for one episode of “Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD,” hosted by Chenjerai Kumanyika: “Episode 1: They Keep People Safe”

8. Video

• Business Insider for “4 Gazans Show How War Has Torn Their Coastline Apart,” produced by Reem Makhoul
• Long Lead for “The Promised Land,” by Rebecca Murga
• National Geographic for “National Geographic Changes Its Definition of ‘Wildlife,’” “AI Helps Decode Whale Language” and “Is It True That Sharks Are Older Than the North Star?” @natgeo on Instagram
• The New Yorker for “Incident,” by Bill Morrison
• The Outlaw Ocean Project for “The North Koreans Behind the World’s Seafood,” directed by Ben Blankenship, and “The New Nearshore Supremacy: China’s Growing Reach Into Local Waters,” directed by Ben Blankenship and Ian Urbina

9. Single-Topic Issue

• Long Lead for “Home of the Brave”
• National Geographic for “Into the Amazon”
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Retirement Issue,” May 12
• Quanta for “The Unraveling of Space-Time”
• The Verge for “2004 Was the First Year of the Future”

10. Newsletters

• The Food Section for three issues of “The Food Section”: “Decision of a Lifetime” and “Squab Slip Through the Cracks,” by Hanna Raskin, and “Intermediary Fajitas,” published with The Assembly, by Tina Vasquez
• Guardian US for three issues of “Reclaim Your Brain,” by Catherine Price: “Week 1: Wasting Less Time on Your Phone Isn’t Easy–But Here’s Where to Start,” January 1; “Week 2: The Apps You Waste Most Time On Don’t Want You to Read This,” January 8; and “Week 3: Your Life Is What You Pay Attention To–Here’s How to Get it Back,” January 15
• The Marshall Project for three issues of “Closing Argument,” by Jamiles Lartey: “When Police Encounters With Autistic People Turn Fatal,” “The Enduring Use of Solitary, and New Proposed Limits That Will Likely Fail (Again)” and “The New Battle Over an Old Institution: Forced Prison Labor”
• New York for three issues of “Dinner Party,” by Choire Sicha, January 30, June 10 and September 26
• Washington Post Opinions for three issues of “Shifts,” by Beatrix Lockwood: “The Genie in Your Smartphone,” August 28; “Content Moderators See Horrible Things on the Internet–So You Don’t Have To,” September 9; and “The Psychedelic Drug Helping Veterans Heal From PTSD,” September 16

11. Service Journalism

• 5280 for “Death Comes for Us All, But It Shouldn’t Come Like This,” by Lindsey B. King
• Bicycling for “Why We Need to Talk About Cycling’s Silent Epidemic,” by Gloria Liu
• Heatmap News for “Decarbonize Your Life”
• Men's Health for “Beyond Obesity,” introductory essay by Drew Magary
• Philadelphia for “The Waiting Game,” by Christine Speer Lejeune

12. Lifestyle Journalism

• Eater for “Welcome to the Chainification of America”
• Food & Wine for “The City That Rice Built,” article by Jeff Gordinier and George McCalman, video directed by Fabienne Toback and Karis Jagger, and social media @foodandwine on Instagram
• Good Housekeeping for three articles from “The Accessibility Issue”: “Tony-Award Winner Ali Stroker on How She Lives Boldly,” “Your Guide to an Accessible Home,” by Olivia Lipski and Elizabeth Berry, and “What to Do When Your Kid Stares at Someone Different,” by Jaclyn Greenberg
• New York for “Reasons to Love New York”
• Texas Monthly for “The 50 Best Tacos in Texas,” by José R. Ralat

13. Reporting

• The Atlantic for "American Cowardice," by Jamie Thompson
• Bloomberg Businessweek for “Sextortion,” by Olivia Carville, “Roblox's Predator Problem,” by Olivia Carville and Cecilia D’Anastasio, and “Fentanyl Almost Killed Michael Brewer. Now He Wants Snap to Pay,” by Olivia Carville
• The Marshall Project for “She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away,” published with Reveal, Mother Jones and USA Today, by Shoshana Walter; “Hospitals Gave Patients Meds During Childbirth, Then Reported Them for Positive Drug Tests,” published with Reveal, Mother Jones and USA Today, by Shoshana Walter; and “You’re About to Deliver Your Baby. This Faulty Drug Test Could Take Your Newborn Away,” published with Reveal and Mother Jones from PRX, hosted by Al Letson with Shoshana Walter
• NBC News for "Cut Up and Leased Out, the Bodies of the Poor Suffer a Final Indignity in Texas," by Mike Hixenbaugh, Jon Schuppe and Susan Carroll
• The New York Times Magazine for “America’s Monster: How the U.S. Backed Kidnapping, Torture and Murder in Afghanistan,” by Azam Ahmed and Matthieu Aikins, and “America’s Monster: Uncovering the Brutal Career of Abdul Raziq—and the Hidden Truths of the War in Afghanistan,” by Matthieu Aikins
• The New Yorker for “Conviction,” by Rachel Aviv
• Texas Monthly for "The Billionaire Who Runs Texas," by Russell Gold

14. Feature Writing

• Deseret for “Alone,” by Natalia Galicza
• Esquire for “The Invisible Man,” by Patrick Fealey
• The Marshall Project for “The Hardest Case for Mercy,” by Joe Sexton
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Deserter,” by Sarah A. Topol
• The New Yorker for “You Won’t Get Free of It,” by Rachel Aviv
• Switchyard for “Power Failure: On Landscape and Abandonment,” by Mya Frazier
• The Washington Post for “The Hero,” by Dan Zak

15. Profile Writing

• 1843 Magazine for “How a Trucker Became a Deadly People Smuggler,” by Emily Gogolak
• The Atavist for “Coming to America,” by Rhana Natour
• Mother Jones for “Lessons From a Mass Shooter's Mother,” by Mark Follman
• ProPublica with Montana Free Press for “Eat What You Kill,” by J. David McSwane
• Rolling Stone for “Devil With a Cause,” by David Peisner
• Washington Post Opinions for “The Canary,” by Michael Lewis
• WIRED for “Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia,” by Lauren Smiley

16. Columns and Essays

• The American Scholar for “Shooting a Dog,” by Hugh Martin
• Guardian US for “How Israel Has Made Trauma a Weapon of War,” by Naomi Klein
• Harper’s Magazine for “After the Deluge,” by Gary Greenberg
• New York for “The Last Thing My Mother Wanted,” by Evelyn Jouvenet
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Kidnapping I Can't Escape,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine for three articles by Mark Harris: “Missing the Gay Best Friend,” “Gay Men Have Long Been Obsessed With Their Muscles. Now Everyone Is” and “Who Gets to Be a Daddy?”
• Tricycle: The Buddhist Review for “Abortion and the First Precept,” by Katy Butler

17. Reviews and Criticism

• Aperture for “For So Many Years When I Close My Eyes,” by Ken Chen
• Defector for “The Judgment of Magneto,” by Asher Elbein
• Harper's Magazine for “Lady Day of the Alhambra,” by Ian Penman
• New York for two articles by Andrea Long Chu: “Freedom of Sex” and “A Lover’s Theory of Marxism”
• The New York Times Magazine for two articles by Wesley Morris: “Forget the Academy. Our Nominees Are . . . ” and “Mr. Manners”
• The New Yorker for three articles by Parul Sehgal: “Divorce Story,” “The Mystery of Pain” and “Origin Story”
• The Yale Review for “The Polycrisis,” by Brandy Jensen

18. Public Interest

• Bloomberg Businessweek for "The Miseducation of America's Nurse Practitioners," by Caleb Melby, Polly Mosendz and Noah Buhayar
• Business Insider for three articles by Cecilia Reyes: “Locked Out,” “When Renters Get Locked Out, They May Never Get Back In” and “Unprotected at the Margins of the Rental Market”
• The New York Times Magazine for "The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?," by Nicholas Confessore
• The New Yorker for "The Life of the Mother," by Stephania Taladrid
• ProPublica for “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” by Stacy Kranitz and Kavitha Surana, “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable,” by Kavitha Surana, and “A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms,” by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
• STAT for three articles from the series “Health Care’s Colossus,” by Tara Bannow, Bob Herman, Lizzy Lawrence and Casey Ross: “How UnitedHealth Harnesses Its Physician Empire to Squeeze Profits Out of Patients,” “UnitedHealth Pledged a Hands-Off Approach After Buying a Connecticut Medical Group. Then It Upended How Doctors Practice” and “Inside UnitedHealth’s Strategy to Pressure Physicians: $10,000 Bonuses and a Doctor Leaderboard”
• The Washington Post for three articles from the series “Abused by the Badge”: “A Police Officer Took a Teen for a Rape Kit. Then He Assaulted Her, Too,” by Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson and John D. Harden, “Abused by the Badge,” by Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson, John D. Harden, Hayden Godfrey and Nate Jones, and “A School Cop Was Accused of Sexual Misconduct With Kids. He Kept His Job for Years,” by Jenn Abelson, Jessica Contrera and Nate Jones

ASME Award for Fiction 2025 Finalists

• The Georgia Review for "Sanrevelle," by Dave Eggers, Summer; "The Escape," by Alessandra Carati, translated by Laura Masini and Linda Worrell; and "The Black Hole of Calcutta," by Urvi Kumbhat, Winter
• Harper's Magazine for "Liquid Papers," by Nicolette Polek, "Lovefool," by Andrew Martin, and "Discourse to Self," by Rosalind Brown
• The Paris Review for "The Beautiful Salmon," by Joanna Kavenna, "An Eye in the Throat," by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, and "Social Promotion," by Elijah Bailey
• The Yale Review for "Rosaura at Dawn," by Daniel Saldaña París, translated by Christina MacSweeney, "A Mild Irreversible Form of Enlightenment," by Anna DeForest, and "Twirl," by Ayşegül Savaş
• Zoetrope: All-Story for "Seven Stories About Tammy," by Elizabeth McCracken, Spring; "Countdown," by Anthony Marra, Spring; and "Town," by Alan Murrin, Summer

ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration 2025 Finalists

1. Best News and Entertainment Design

• National Geographic for “Into the Amazon”
• New York for “Can the Media Survive?,” October 21-November 3
• New York Times Opinion for “The Toll,” “The Last Survivors Speak. It’s Time to Listen” and “At the Brink”
• ProPublica for “Still Born”
• The Verge for “2004 Was the First Year of the Future”

2. Best Service and Lifestyle Design

• Eater for “Welcome to the Chainification of America”
• New York for “The YESTERYEAR Issue,” April 8–21
• The New York Times Magazine for “How Far Would You Go for a Single Bite?”
• The New Yorker for “The Food Issue”
• Texas Monthly for “The 50 Best Tacos in Texas,” November

3. Best Social Media

• InStyle for “We’re All Just Living in Katseye’s World” @instylemagazine on Instagram and @instyle on TikTok and YouTube, September 25; “Imagemaker Awards” @instylemagazine on Instagram, October 24 and October 25, and @instyle on TikTok, October 24, October 26 and October 29; and “InStyle x Alexis Bittar” @instylemagazine on Instagram, August 21, August 22, September 7, September 8 and September 16
• Noema for “Protecting Dark Sky Country” @noemamag on Instagram, March 6
• Women's Health for “Self-Care Can Look Different for Everyone” @womenshealthmag on Instagram, July 8, “Self-Care Exercise: Five Senses Stimulation” @womenshealthmag on Instagram, July 12, and “Self-Care Exercise: 4-7-8 Breathing Technique” @womenshealthmag on Instagram, July 13

4. Best News and Documentary Photography

• The Atlantic for “Seventy Miles in the Darién Gap,” photographs by Lynsey Addario
• National Geographic for “The Wondrous World of Fungi,” photographs by Agorastos Papatsanis and Phyllis Ma, April
• POLITICO for “From Iowa to Election Day,” including photographs by Jamie Kelter Davis
• ProPublica for “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” photographs by Stacy Kranitz
• TIME for “This Is Life in America’s Water-Inequality Capital. It Might Be About to Change,” photographs by Elliot Ross

5. Best Entertainment and Celebrity Photography

• Allure for “Where There's a Willow There's a Way,” photographs by Zhong Lin
• The New Yorker for “Sorry I'm Not Your Clown Today,” photographs by Ryan McGinley
• Rolling Stone for “Chappell Roan: The Pain & Pleasure of a Pop Supernova,” photographs by Inez and Vinoodh
• TIME for “Inside Photographing the 2024 Paris Olympics,” photographs by Robbie Lawrence
• W Magazine for “Full Speed Ahead,” photographs by Tim Walker

6. Best Service and Lifestyle Photography

• The New Yorker for “When Babies Rule the Dinner Table,” photographs by Olaf Blecker, “Fifteen Essential Cookbooks,” photographs by Hannah Walker, and “A Martini Tour of New York City,” photographs by Landon Nordeman
• Road & Track for “Bug,” photographs by Grant Hindsley, August/September and @roadandtrack.artdept on Instagram, August 15 and August 28
• SELF for “A Day Out With the Dads and Daughters Who Love Women’s Basketball,” “A Look Inside Athlos NYC, Where Female Track Athletes Are Treated Like Rock Stars” and “Dance Parties, Bus Bunks and Deep Conversations Are All Part of the Gold Over America Gymnastics Tour,” photographs by Dolly Faibyshev
• Stranger's Guide with Coda Story for “The New Aztecs,” photographs by Kike Arnal
• W Magazine for “Child's Play,” photographs by Ethan James Green

7. Best Still Illustrations

• The Marshall Project with Mother Jones for “Serving Time for Their Abusers’ Crimes,” illustrations by Yimin Qiao
• Mother Jones for “Bad Habits,” illustration by Cienna Ignacio-Smith
• New York for “Weeping on Cue Is the Toughest Skill an Actor Can Learn. Could I Do It, Too?,” illustration by Arn0
• New York Times Opinion for “America Needs to Remember How to Forget,” illustrations by Deanne Cheuk
• Summit Journal for Spring and Fall covers and “The Wall of Early Morning Light,” Spring, illustrations by Thomas Danthony

8. Best Animated Illustrations

• The Atlantic for “Gambling Enters the Family Zone,” illustration by Sean Dong
• The New Yorker for “The Mormon TikTok Moms Are All of Us,” illustration by Fromm Studio
• Noema for “Why We Fear Diverse Intelligence Like AI,” illustration by m0 studio

9. Best Illustrated Stories

• GQ for “41 Dos and Don’ts for Getting Dressed for the Office,” illustrations by Stephan Dybus
• The New York Times Magazine for “Walnut and Me,” by Sam Anderson, illustrations by Gaia Alari
• The New Yorker for “Cleared by Fire,” directed by David Kofahl and Sam Wolson, reporting by In the Dark, illustrations by Emiliano Ponzi
• ProPublica with Wisconsin Watch for “The Genesis of Christian Nationalism,” by Phoebe Petrovic for Wisconsin Watch, illustrations by Nate Sweitzer for ProPublica
• The Verge for “How to Watch a Baby,” by Kristen Radtke

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. This year 236 media organizations entered the awards, submitting 979 entries in 18 categories. The judges included 252 writers, editors, art directors, photo editors and journalism educators.

The winner of each National Magazine Award receives a copper “Ellie,” modeled on the symbol of the awards, Alexander Calder’s 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 in conjunction with the National Magazine Awards.

About ASME

The American Society of Magazine Editors is the principal organization for the editorial leaders of magazines and websites published in the United States. Founded in 1963, ASME strives to defend the First Amendment, support the development of journalism and promote the editorial integrity of print and digital publications. ASME sponsors the National Magazine Awards in association with the Columbia Journalism School, conducts training programs for reporters and editors and publishes the ASME Guidelines for Editors and Publishers.

About Columbia Journalism School

For over a century, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism has been preparing journalists with instruction and training that stresses academic rigor, ethics, journalistic inquiry and professional practice. Founded with a gift from Joseph Pulitzer, the school opened its doors in 1912 and offers master of science, master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees. Learn more at journalism.columbia.edu.

Contact:
Sidney Holt
[email protected]
212-872-3723