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ASME Announces National Magazine Awards 2026 WinnersBloomberg News and New York Magazine receive multiple awards; The Yale Review wins ASME Award for Fiction New York (May 19, 2026)—The winners of the 61st annual National Magazine Awards were announced tonight by the American Society of Magazine Editors at a gala hosted at the People Inc. Event Center at Brookfield Place in New York City. Sixteen magazines and websites received awards, including two publications that garnered two awards. Bloomberg News won the awards for Video and Newsletters; New York Magazine won Photography and General Excellence. Media organizations that received National Magazine Awards for the first time were The Believer in Columns and Essays; The Bitter Southerner in General Excellence; New York Review of Architecture in Reviews and Criticism; Pablo Torre Finds Out in Podcasting; and Wirecutter in Service Journalism. Award winners also included The Atavist in Reporting; The Atlantic in Single-Topic Issue; Food & Wine in Lifestyle Journalism; Harper’s Magazine in Feature Writing; The New Yorker in Profile Writing; ProPublica in Public Interest; Rolling Stone in Design; and T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Texas Monthly, both in General Excellence. The 9th annual ASME Award for Fiction was presented to The Yale Review. Also honored at the gala were the recipients of the 11th annual ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30: Paula Aceves of New York Magazine, Isabella Cueto of STAT, Charlotte Klein of New York Magazine, Chris Panicker of GQ and Pitchfork and Matteo Wong of The Atlantic. The presentation of the National Magazine Awards followed the conclusion of the 2026 ASME Editorial Conference, also at People Inc. The winners of the ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration and the ASME Readers’ Choice Award, all previously announced on April 9, were honored during the conference. The winners included The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, ELLE, High Country News, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Road & Track, Rolling Stone, TIME and The Verge. “The range of stories and visuals that won National Magazine Awards this year—from Pablo Torre’s Kawhi-Gate podcasts and Rolling Stone’s Sabrina Carpenter cover to Wirecutter’s ‘Guide to Data Security’ and Ava Kofman’s New Yorker profile of Curtis Yarvin, ‘Autocracy Now!’—is testament to the enduring power of magazine journalism,” said Sidney Holt, executive director of ASME. “ASME proudly congratulates each of the finalists and winners and thanks the hundreds of journalists who entered or judged the awards.” The most prestigious journalism awards for magazines and websites published in the United States, the National Magazine Awards honor print and digital publications for editorial and visual excellence as demonstrated by the superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Originally limited to print magazines, the awards now recognize magazine storytelling published in any medium, including newspapers and newsletters. First presented in 1966, the National Magazine Awards are sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Awards are currently presented in 18 categories. The winner in each category receives an “Ellie,” modeled on the symbol of the awards, Alexander Calderʼs “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 solely sponsored by ASME. The ASME Award for Fiction celebrates the historic link between literary fiction and magazine journalism. The ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration honor magazines and websites for individual examples of visual excellence. The ASME NEXT Awards recognize outstanding achievement by early-career journalists. More than 70 media organizations were finalists for National Magazine Awards this year. Five publications were nominated for the ASME Award for Fiction. The finalists for the Design, Photography and Illustration Awards included 32 magazines and websites. A complete list of the finalists, with links to stories, is posted at asme.media. The judging of the awards was conducted in January at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City and on Zoom. More than 300 writers, editors, art directors, photo editors and journalism educators participated in the judging, working in small groups to choose the finalists and winners. The results of the National Magazine Awards judging were approved by the National Magazine Awards Board. The decisions of the ASME Awards and ASME NEXT Awards judges were sanctioned by the ASME Board of Directors. Lists of the judges and members of the National Magazine Awards Board and ASME Board of Directors are posted here and here. Content in the following citations published 2025 unless otherwise indicated. URLs may link to digital versions of print entries. National Magazine Awards 2026 Winners General Excellence, News, Sports and Entertainment New York General Excellence, Service and Lifestyle T: The New York Times Style Magazine General Excellence, Special Interest Texas Monthly General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics The Bitter Southerner Design Rolling Stone for May Issue, July-August Issue and “The Rolling Stone Interview Archive,” July 17 at rollingstone.com Photography New York for “The Yesteryear Issue,” including photographs by Mark Seliger, April 7-20; “The 12th-Floor Dragnet,” photographs by Stephanie Keith, October 20-November 2; and “The Power Issue,” including photographs by Elinor Kry, November 3-16 Podcasting Pablo Torre Finds Out for “The Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree,” September 3, “The Mystery Investor, the No-Show Payday and the ‘Smoking Gun’: Kawhi-Gate, Part III,” September 11, and “Steve Ballmer, the Other Cuban and the $118 Million Infusion: Kawhi-Gate, Part IV,” September 18 Video Bloomberg News for “Can't Look Away,” produced and directed by Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz, based on reporting by Olivia Carville, April 4 Single-Topic Issue The Atlantic for “The Unfinished Revolution,” November Newsletters Bloomberg News for three issues of “FOIA Files,” by Jason Leopold: “How Trump’s Presidency Is Impacting the FOIA,” February 21, “FBI Agents, FOIA Staff Pulling All Nighters Reviewing Jeffrey Epstein Files,” March 28, and “Trump Ordered a Mountain Name Change. It Could Be an Uphill Battle,” July 25 Service Journalism Wirecutter for three articles from “Wirecutter’s Guide to Data Security”: “Your Data Appeared in a Leak. Now What?,” by Max Eddy, “Yes, Your TV Is Probably Spying on You. Your Fridge, Too. Here’s What They Know,” by Rachel Cericola, Jon Chase and Lee Neikirk, and “I Tried, and Failed, to Disappear From the Internet,” by Max Eddy, June 25 Lifestyle Journalism Food & Wine for “Out of the Wild,” by Kim Cross, July, “How Wild Salmon Gets From Sea to Plate,” August 19 on instagram.com/foodandwine, and “I Tracked a Wild Salmon From Sea to Plate—What I Learned Surprised Me,” by Kim Cross, August 20 at foodandwine.com Reporting The Atavist for “‘There Will Be No Mercy,’” by Drew Philp, January 31 Feature Writing Harper's Magazine for “The Goon Squad,” by Daniel Kolitz, November Profile Writing The New Yorker for “Autocracy Now!,” by Ava Kofman, June 9 Columns and Essays The Believer for “Water Pressure,” by Rafia Zakaria, Summer Reviews and Criticism New York Review of Architecture for “The Brutalist,” by Thomas de Monchaux, March/April, “Megalopolis,” by Mark Krotov, March/April, and “Frickrolled,” by Thomas de Monchaux,” May-August Public Interest ProPublica for “Now That They’re Free,” published with The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News, by Perla Trevizo, Melissa Sanchez and Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News, July 30; “‘I Lost Everything’: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime,” published with Block Club Chicago and FRONTLINE, by Melissa Sanchez, Jodi S. Cohen, T. Christian Miller, Sebastian Rotella and Mariam Elba, November 13; and “Status: Venezuelan,” directed by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons for FRONTLINE, December 10 ASME Award for Fiction 2026 Winner The Yale Review for “An Angel Passed Above Us," by László Krasznahorkai, translated by John Batki, February 24 at yalereview.org, "The Rabbit's Foot," by Sigrid Nunez, Summer, and “What Are We Doing, What Have We Done,” by Nathan Englander, Winter ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration 2026 Winners Best News and Information Design The Verge for “American War,” April 21, including “Wandering Souls,” by Matt Huynh, April 22, and “For Scale,” April 23 Best Entertainment and Celebrity Design Rolling Stone for July-August Issue Best Service and Lifestyle Design Bon Appétit for “The Art & Design Issue,” May, “The 20 Best New Restaurants of 2025,” October, and “This Is Thanksgiving 2025,” November Best News and Documentary Photography TIME for “What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced,” photographs by Philip Holsinger, March 21 at time.com Best Entertainment and Celebrity Photography The New Yorker for “Power Houses,” photographs by Gillian Laub, May 5 at newyorker.com and May 12 & 19 Issue Best Service and Lifestyle Photography ELLE for "Sculpture Garden," September, and "Screen Gems," November, photographs by Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw Best Still and Animated Illustrations The Atlantic for “America's Mad King,” illustration by Ben Hickey, April 17 at theatlantic.com Best Illustrated Stories The New York Times Magazine for “An Agoraphobe Goes to the Grocery Store,” by Sara Benincasa, illustrations and animations by Nata Metlukh, March 14 at nytimes.com/magazine Best News and Information Covers National Geographic for “This Pig Could Save Your Life,” photograph by Craig Cutler, June Best Entertainment and Celebrity Covers The New York Times Magazine for “The Rock and the Hard Place,” photograph by Jack Davison, September 28 Best Service and Lifestyle Covers Road & Track for “The Car World’s Strongest Bonding Agent,” photograph by Ian Allen, December 2025/January 2026 Best Independent Magazine Covers High Country News for “The Art of the Cruise,” photograph by Gabriela Campos, May ASME Readers’ Choice Award National Geographic for "The Tigers Who Changed Their Stripes,” photograph by Prasenjeet Yadav, October ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 Honorees Paula Aceves Isabella Cueto Charlotte Klein Chris Panicker Matteo Wong About ASME About Columbia Journalism School Contact: |