ELLIES 2016 FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

New York Magazine leads Ellie pack with nine nominations; BuzzFeed News, Eater, Huffington Post and The Intercept are first-time digital finalists

NEW YORK, NY (January 14, 2016)—The American Society of Magazine Editors today released the list of finalists for the 2016 National Magazine Awards for Print and Digital Media. For the third year running, the nominations were first announced in an hour-long Twittercast. ASME will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the awards when each of the 114 finalists is honored at the annual awards dinner on Monday, February 1, at the Grand Hyatt New York.

Sixty-seven media organizations were nominated in 21 categories this year. Five magazines were nominated for the most prestigious honor, Magazine of the Year. They are The Atlantic, The Hollywood Reporter, National Geographic, New York and The New Yorker. Twenty-four titles received multiple nominations, led by New York with 9. New York also had the most number of nominations in 2015 with 10 and 2014 with 9.

The New York Times Magazine received seven nominations this year, the most for the title since it received nine nominations in 2011. Other multi-finalists include GQ with six; The New Yorker with five; Bon Appetit with four; and Matter, National Geographic and Poetry, each with three. Vice and Vice News also combined for three nominations.

Besides Vice, 15 publications garnered two nominations: The Atlantic, Backpacker, Bloomberg Businessweek, The California Sunday Magazine, Cosmopolitan, ESPN The Magazine, Esquire, Harper's Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, The Intercept, Pitchfork, Popular Mechanics, San Francisco, Vanity Fair and Wired. The Huffington Post and The Huffington Post Highline combined for two nominations.

Finalists this year also include Aperture, Audubon, BBC News Magazine (US), Bicycling, BuzzFeed News, Car and Driver, Chicago, Conde Nast Traveler, Cooking Light, Eater, FamilyFun, Fast Company, Foreign Affairs, Golf Digest, Harper's Bazaar, Los Angeles, Lucky Peach, the Marshall Project with ProPublica, Modern Farmer, Mother Jones, Nautilus, Newsweek, The Oxford American, Parents, Politico, Refinery29, Rolling Stone, Runner's World, Seventeen, Slate, Smithsonian, Sunset, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Tablet Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Vogue, W, WSJ., and Zoetrope: All-Story.

Twelve media organizations are first-time finalists: BBC News Magazine (US), BuzzFeed News, Car and Driver, Eater, FamilyFun, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post Highline, The Intercept, Lucky Peach, the Marshall Project, ProPublica and WSJ. Digital-first finalists include 16 titles: BBC News Magazine (US), BuzzFeed News, Eater, The Huffington Post, The Huffington Post Highline, The Intercept, the Marshall Project, Matter, Nautilus, Pitchfork, Politico, ProPublica, Refinery29, Slate, Tablet Magazine and Vice News.

Short-listed articles range from long-form to how-to. Notable finalists include “The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes,” by Andrew Kahn and Jamelle Bouie for Slate in Multimedia; the virtual-reality production “Walking New York," by JR, Chris Milk and Zach Richter for The New York Times Magazine in Video; “The Healthy Cook’s Guide to Fat,” by Sidney Fry, MS, RD, and Robin Bashinsky for  Cooking Light in Personal Service; “The Education of Alex Rodriguez,” by the Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer for ESPN The Magazine in Feature Writing; and three columns by Barrett Brown, written from prison for The Intercept in Columns and Commentary.

The nomination in Feature Photography of “He Says Goodbye, She Says Hello,” Annie Leibovitz’s photographs of Caitlyn Jenner for Vanity Fair, is the fourth of Leibovitz's career. Her work “Killers Kill, Dead Men Die” won the Ellie for Photo Portfolio for Vanity Fair in 2008. The following year ASME presented its inaugural Creative Excellence Award to Leibovitz in recognition of her unique contributions to magazine media.

The nomination in Essays and Criticism of “The Accident,” by Michael Paterniti for GQ, is the ninth Ellie honor for Paterniti’s work. His story “Driving Mr. Albert” won Feature Writing for Harper’s Magazine in 1998. The nomination in Reporting of “Where the Bodies Are Buried” marks the third year in a row that Patrick Radden Keefe’s work for The New Yorker has been honored. His story “A Loaded Gun” won the Ellie for Feature Writing in 2014; “The Hunt for El Chapo” was nominated in Reporting last year. Tim Walker is also a finalist again this year. Walker’s work for W was nominated in 2011 and 2012, and his portfolio “Stranger Than Paradise” won Feature Photography for W in 2014.

Other previous Ellie winners nominated in 2016 include Jonathan Franzen (finalist in Essays and Criticism), whose story “My Father’s Brain” won Essays for The New Yorker in 2002; Jeffrey Goldberg (Reporting), whose two-part series “In the Party of God” won Reporting for The New Yorker in 2003; and Luke Mogelson (Reporting), whose story “The Dream Boat” won Reporting for The New York Times Magazine in 2014.

“Millions of Americans turn to print magazines and magazine websites for information they can trust,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of ASME. “The Ellie Awards have honored the best of that work for half a century. This year the Ellies will honor more than 50 print magazines, along with dozens of extraordinary pieces of digital journalism—showing more than ever that the Ellies are the premier awards for both print and digital media.”

Established in 1966, the National Magazine Awards are sponsored by ASME in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and are administered by ASME. Two hundred eighty-two publications entered the Ellie Awards this year, submitting 1,590 print and digital entries. The judges included 295 print- and digital-magazine editors, art directors, photography editors and journalism educators.

Each National Magazine Award winner receives a copper reproduction of Alexander Calder's stabile "Elephant," the symbol of the awards since 1970 and the reason the awards are known as the Ellies. Ellie Awards Annual Dinner ticket sales provide support for the Osborn Elliott Scholarship at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Named in honor of the former Newsweek editor and Columbia dean, the scholarship is awarded to students who intend to pursue careers in magazine journalism.


Ellie Awards 2016 Finalists

General Excellence

News, Sports and Entertainment
Honors publications covering politics, business and technology as well as pop culture and leisure interests

Esquire; Fast Company; GQ; New York; The New York Times Magazine; The New Yorker; Newsweek

Service and Lifestyle

Honors publications covering health and fitness as well as fashion, design, food and travel

Bon Appétit; Golf Digest; Harper’s Bazaar; Lucky Peach; Parents; Seventeen; T: The New York Times Style Magazine

Special Interest
Honors publications serving highly defined reader communities, including city and regional magazines

Backpacker; Car and Driver; The Hollywood Reporter; Modern Farmer; San Francisco; Smithsonian; Tablet Magazine

Literature, Science and Politics
Honors smaller-circulation general-interest magazines as well as publications covering the arts

Aperture; Foreign Affairs; Nautilus; The Oxford American; Poetry; Virginia Quarterly Review


Design
Honors overall excellence in print magazine design

Bon Appétit; GQ; New York; The Pitchfork Review; Wired


Photography
Honors overall excellence in print magazine photography

The California Sunday Magazine; National Geographic; New York; Vanity Fair; WSJ.


Single-Topic Issue
Honors print magazines that have devoted a single issue to the comprehensive examination of one subject

  • Bloomberg Businessweek for “Code: An Essay,” June 15-28
  • National Geographic for “The Climate Issue,” November
  • The New York Times Magazine for “Walking New York,” April 26
  • San Francisco for “The Chinese-American City,” April
  • Vice for “The Prison Issue,” October


Website
Honors magazine websites and online-only magazines

AudubonBloomberg BusinessweekNew YorkRefinery29Vogue


Multimedia
Honors digital storytelling and the integration of magazine media


Video
Honors the outstanding use of video by magazine media


Public Interest
Honors magazine journalism that illuminates issues of national importance


Personal Service
Honors magazine journalism that serves readers’ needs and aspirations

  • Cooking Light for “The Healthy Cook’s Guide to Fat,” by Sidney Fry, MS, RD, and Robin Bashinsky, November
  • Cosmopolitan for “Surf the New Wave: Cosmo’s Guide to the Modern Period,” by Laura Beil and Anna Maltby, November
  • FamilyFun for “The Happy Family Playbook,” by Jennifer King Lindley, May
  • Popular Mechanics for “How to Buy a Car,” July/August
  • Wired for “All Work and All Play,” by Rashida Jones, July


Leisure Interests
Honors magazine journalism that provides practical information about recreational activities and special interests

  • Bon Appétit for “Cook Like a Pro,” April
  • Eater for “The Eater Guide to Surviving Disney World,” August 26 at eater.com
  • GQ for “What’s Blowing Up,” April
  • Los Angeles for “Taco City,” July, and “Taco Week,” July 20, by Lesley Bargar Suter With Bill Esparza at lamag.com
  • Sunset for “Welcome to Camp Sunset,” May


Magazine Section
Honors the editorial direction of print or digital departments or sections

  • Backpacker for “The Play List”
  • Bon Appétit for “BA Kitchen”
  • GQ for “Manual”
  • New York for “The Culture Pages”
  • Popular Mechanics for “How Your World Works”


Reporting
Honors reporting excellence as exemplified by one article or a series of articles


Feature Writing
Honors original, stylish storytelling


Feature Photography
Honors the use of original photography in a feature story, photo-essay or photo portfolio


Essays and Criticism
Honors interpretative and critical journalism


Columns and Commentary
Honors political and social commentary; news analysis; and reviews and criticism


Fiction
Honors fiction originally published in magazines


Magazine of the Year
Honors magazines for print and digital editorial excellence and for the success of branded content and services, including conferences and events

The Atlantic; The Hollywood Reporter; National Geographic; New York; The New Yorker


All publication dates 2015 unless otherwise indicated


About ASME

The American Society of Magazine Editors is the principal organization for magazine journalists in the United States. The members of ASME include the editorial leaders of most major consumer and business magazines published in print and on digital platforms. Founded in 1963, ASME works to defend the First Amendment, protect editorial independence and support the development of journalism. ASME sponsors the National Magazine Awards in association with the Columbia Journalism School 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.

 

Contacts:

Sid Holt
[email protected]
212-872-3723

Susan Russ
[email protected]
212-872-3732