NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS 2026 NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

Design, Photography and Illustration Awards finalists also named; National Magazine Awards finalists and winners to be honored at ASME Editorial Conference in New York City on May 19

New York (February 26, 2026)—The American Society of Magazine Editors today released the list of finalists for the 61st 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.

Each of the finalists will be honored—and the winners announced—at the presentation of the National Magazine Awards at the People Inc. Event Center at Brookfield Place in New York City on Tuesday, May 19. The 2026 ASME Editorial Conference will be held with the awards presentation. Tickets for both the editorial conference and the awards presentation are now on sale. To purchase tickets, visit nationalmagazineawards.org, email [email protected] or call 212.872.3737.

ASME also released today the list of finalists for the 2026 ASME Award for Fiction and ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration. The winners of the Fiction and Design, Photography and Illustration awards will be announced on Thursday, April 9. The winners of the 2026 ASME NEXT Awards for Journalists Under 30 will also be announced on April 9.

“From reporting and features to podcasting and newsletters, magazine storytellers are setting the agenda for print and digital journalism,” said Sidney Holt, the executive director of ASME. “The 2026 National Magazine Awards, ASME Award for Fiction and ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration are a showcase for the astonishing range of content that regularly draws millions of Americans to magazines and editorial websites.”

More than 70 media organizations are finalists for National Magazine Awards this year. Nineteen publications received multiple nominations, led by New York Magazine with nine and The New Yorker with five. The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, ProPublica, Texas Monthly and WIRED each got four nominations. Bloomberg News and National
Geographic both got three nominations. Ten publications received two nominations, including The Believer, Bloomberg Businessweek, GQ, The Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, Mother Jones, Philadelphia Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Vogue and Wirecutter.

The finalists also include Allure, The American Scholar, Anyway, Aperture, The Atavist, Bicycling, The Bitter Southerner, Bloomberg Markets, Business Insider, Bustle, CalMatters, Consumer Reports, CULTURED, The Cut, Eater, Embedded from NPR, ESPN Digital, The Examination, Food & Wine, Harper’s Bazaar, The Journal., MIT Technology Review, Mountain Gazette, New York Review of Architecture, New York Times Opinion, Orion, Pablo Torre Finds Out, Quanta, Racquet, Rolling Stone, Science News, The Spread, STAT, Teen Vogue, TIME, Today in Tabs, The Trace, Vanity Fair, The Verge, “We’re Doing the Wiz” for Radiotopia from PRX, World Literature Today and The Yale Review.

Nominated for partnerships with other media organizations were Epic Magazine with Mountain Gazette, Food & Environment Reporting Network with Texas Monthly, PRX with Science News, and Alianza Rebelde Investiga, Block Club Chicago, Cazadores de Fake News, FRONTLINE and The Texas Tribune, all with ProPublica.

The ASME Award for Fiction was established in 2017 to honor magazines and websites for excellence as demonstrated by three examples of short fiction. The five finalists for the 2026 ASME Award for Fiction are The Drift, Elastic, The Georgia Review, The New Yorker and The Yale Review.

Founded in 2019, the ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration honor magazines and websites for individual examples of visual excellence. The awards celebrate the unique importance of design, photography and illustration to the practice of magazine journalism both in print and online.

Thirty-two media organizations are finalists for this year’s DPI Awards. Topping the list of finalists are The New York Times Magazine with eight nominations, New York Magazine with six and The Verge with four. GQ, National Geographic and The New Yorker each received three nominations. Receiving two nominations were The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, Garden & Gun, High Country News, Road & Track, Texas Monthly and W Magazine.

Also nominated for ASME Awards for Design, Photography and Illustration were The Atavist, Bloomberg Businessweek, ELLE, Entertainment Weekly, Foreign Policy, New York Times Opinion, Poetry, ProPublica, Quanta, Rolling Stone, Saveur, Sierra, Summit Journal, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Teen Vogue, TIME, Travel + Leisure, Virtuoso, The Magazine, and WSJ. Magazine.

National Magazine Awards 2026 Finalists

1. General Excellence, News, Sports and Entertainment

• The Atlantic
• National Geographic
• New York Magazine
• ProPublica
• WIRED

2. General Excellence, Service and Lifestyle

• Allure
• Eater
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine
• Vogue
• Wirecutter

3. General Excellence, Special Interest

• Anyway
• Bicycling
• Philadelphia Magazine
• Texas Monthly
• The Trace

4. General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics

• Aperture
• The Bitter Southerner
• Mother Jones
• Quanta
• The Yale Review

5. Design

• National Geographic for “How to Make a Forest Reappear,” April 22 at nationalgeographic.com, “The City of 700 Languages,” July, and “Pictures of the Year 2025,” November 21 at nationalgeographic.com
• New York Magazine for “The Hamptons Issue,” Summer, November 17-30 Flip Issue, and “The Culturati 50,” December 1-14
• The New York Times Magazine for March 16 Issue, “The Ghosts of Altadena,” April 4, and “Finding the Pope’s Roots,” June 11, at nytimes.com/magazine
• Rolling Stone for May Issue, July-August Issue and “The Rolling Stone Interview Archive,” July 17 at rollingstone.com
• The Verge for “American War,” April 21, “Wikipedia Is Resilient Because It Is Boring,” September 4, and “The Future of Being Trans on the Internet,” October 16

6. Photography

• GQ for “Michael B. Jordan Wants to Slow Down (But Not Right Now),” photographs by Jack Bridgland, March, “How Travis Kelce Spent His Summer Vacation,” photographs by Ryan McGinley, September, and “GQ Men of the Year 30,” photographs by Tyrell Hampton, December 2025/January 2026
• National Geographic for “The Long Journey of Canada's Last Reindeer,” photographs by Katie Orlinsky, March, “Can Forensic Science Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade?,” photographs by Britta Jaschinski, August, and “These Incredible Photos Show You Life From a Bug’s Perspective,” photographs by Takuya Ishiguro, October 6 at nationalgeographic.com
• New York Magazine 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
• TIME for “How Lewis Hamilton Finally Got His Ferrari Red,” photographs by Scandebergs, February 27 at time.com, “‘I’m Afraid’: What U.S. Aid Cuts Mean for the Women of Afghanistan,” photographs by Elise Blanchard, September 8, and “Crisis in the Shadows,” photographs by Moises Saman, September 29
• Vanity Fair for “Captain America?” photographs by Sinna Nasseri, November, “The People’s Princes,” photographs by Theo Wenner, Hollywood 2026, and “Eye of the Hurricane,” Part 1 and Part 2, photographs by Christopher Anderson, Winter 2026

7. Podcasting

• Embedded from NPR for three episodes of “Alternate Realities,” reported and hosted by Zach Mack: “A Strange Bet,” “Down the Rabbit Hole” and “Facing the Facts,” February 21
• The Journal., a Co-Production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal, for three episodes of “Camp Swamp Road,” reported and hosted by Valerie Bauerlein: “Episode 1: Mess Around, Find Out,” September 15, “Episode 2: A Game of Telephone,” September 21, and “Episode 3: A Friend in the Shadows,” September 28
• 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
• Science News with PRX for three episodes of “The Deep End,” reported and hosted by Laura Sanders: “A Man Volunteered to Get Brain Implants for Depression. Hear His Story,” February 10, “'It Felt Like Dread.' Hear What Severe Depression Can Do to People,” February 17, “Hear Patients With Brain Implants Describe What It Feels Like,” February 24
• “We’re Doing The Wiz” for Radiotopia from PRX for “Episode 1: The Tofu Curtain,” June 17, “Episode 2: The Black Wizard of Oz,” June 24, and “Episode 3: You Don't Hit White Girls,” July 1, produced and hosted by Ian Coss and Sakina Ibrahim

8. 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
• The Examination for “How the U.S. Automotive Industry Fuels Lead Poisoning in Nigeria,” by Will Fitzgibbon, Taylor Turner, Ashleigh Joplin and Daron Taylor, November 18
• The New Yorker for “Cashing Out,” directed by Matt Nadel, September 10
• ProPublica for FRONTLINE for “Status: Venezuelan,” directed by Mauricio Rodriguez Pons, December 10
• WIRED for “I 3D-Printed Luigi Mangione’s ‘Ghost Gun,’” produced and directed by Lisandro Perez-Rey, hosted by Andy Greenberg, May 19 at youtube.com/wired

9. Single-Topic Issue

• The Atlantic for “The Unfinished Revolution,” November
• Bloomberg Markets for “The Japan Issue,” October/November
• New York Magazine for “The Hamptons Issue,” Summer
• Orion for “Queer Planet: A Celebration of Biodiversity,” Spring
• World Literature Today for “Gaza Voices,” July/August

10. 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
• Harper’s Bazaar for three issues of “A Closer Read,” by Kaitlyn Greenidge: “September 16 [Arundhati Roy],” “October 21 [Jen Percy]” and “October 28 [Jamaica Kincaid]”
• New York Magazine for three issues of “Secret Strategist,” by Simone Kitchens, Winnie Yang, Lauren Ro, Erin Schwartz and Michael Zhao: “Mushroom-Brown Cargos and Havaianas Alternatives,” August 14, “The Susan Orlean Closet Tour,” October 16, and “The Zwirner Curator’s Old Navy Jeans and Target Tees,” November 6, on Substack
• The Spread for “Denial Ain’t Just a River in Egypt,” January 8, “Pinups on Parade,” February 6, and “You’re Never Too Old to Get Even," June 18, by Rachel Baker and Maggie Bullock, on Substack
• Today in Tabs for “Hot Whales in Your Area,” March 7, “Billionaires Destroyed American News Media on Purpose,” July 18, and “ZZ Flop,” November 20, by Rusty Foster, on beehiiv

11. Service Journalism

• Business Insider for three articles by Hannah Beckler: “The Business of C-Sections,” August 23, “C-Section Rates Vary Widely by Hospital. Women Often Can't See the Data,” October 10, and “Cutting Costs,” December 17
• Bustle for “The Vanity Project,” with an introduction by Sable Yong, November 12
• Consumer Reports for two articles from the series “Beauty Justice”: “Dangerous Chemicals Were Detected in 100% of the Braiding Hair We Tested,” by Leigh-Ann Jackson, February 27, and “Over 10,000 Women Now Allege That Toxic Chemicals in Hair Relaxers Gave Them Cancer,” by Lauren Kirchner, May 12, at consumerreports.org
• 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
• WIRED for “How to Win a Fight,” including “The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance,” by Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman, June 16, and “Print. Fold. Share. Download WIRED's ‘How to Win a Fight’ Zine Here,” compiled by Reece Rogers, June 20, at wired.com

12. Lifestyle Journalism

• The Cut for “The Forever-35 Face,” by Bridget Read, Fall
• 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
• New York Magazine for “Your Parents' Money,” with an introductory essay by Madeline Leung Coleman, February 10-23
• Philadelphia Magazine for “Cheesesteak 2.0,” by Bradford Pearson, Kae Lani Palmisano, Adam Erace, Victor Fiorillo, Emily Goulet, Jason Sheehan and Regan Fletcher Stephens, April
• Texas Monthly for “The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas,” by Daniel Vaughn, June

13. Reporting

• The Atavist for “‘There Will Be No Mercy,’” by Drew Philp, January 31
• Bloomberg Businessweek for “Erasing the Verdict: The Ongoing Shock of Trump’s Cocaine Kingpin Pardon,” by Monte Reel, December 26 at bloomberg.com
• The Guardian for “Influencers Made Millions Pushing ‘Wild’ Births—Now the Free Birth Society Is Linked to Baby Deaths Around the World,” by Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne, November 22
• MIT Technology Review for “We Did the Math on AI’s Energy Footprint. Here’s the Story You Haven’t Heard,” by James O’Donnell and Casey Crownhart, May 20 at technologyreview.com
• The New York Times Magazine for “‘You’ve Blown a Hole in the Family’: Inside the Murdochs’ Succession Drama,” by Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, February 13 at nytimes.com/magazine
• ProPublica for three articles by Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy: “Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera,” December 15, “Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis,” December 17, and “The Summer of Starvation: Amid Trump’s Foreign Aid Cuts, a Mother Struggles to Keep Her Sons Alive,” December 17
• Texas Monthly with Food & Environment Reporting Network for two articles by Elliott Woods: “A Deadly Passage,” February 26, and “‘Stay Strong, My Brother,’” December 3, at texasmonthly.com

14. Feature Writing

• The Atlantic for “Is Ian Still in There?,” by Sarah Zhang, June
• Harper's Magazine for “The Goon Squad,” by Daniel Kolitz, November
• Mountain Gazette with Epic Magazine for “The Bear Suit,” by Owen Long, Issue No. 203
• New York Magazine for “There Is No Safe Word,” by Lila Shapiro, January 13-26
• The New Yorker for “Second Life,” by Rachel Aviv, July 28
• STAT for “Sterilization, Mysterious Pain, and Dismissive Doctors: Why Women Turn to Reversal Surgery—and Sometimes to RFK Jr.,” by Eric Boodman, September 8
• Texas Monthly for “Where the River Took Us,” by Aaron Parsley, August

15. Profile Writing

• GQ for “The Ethical Assassin: One Man's Quest for the Perfect Way to Kill a Fish,” by Brett Martin, June 3 at gq.com
• Mother Jones for “The Unflinching Courage of Taylor Cadle,” by Rachel de Leon and Julia Lurie, March + April
• New York Magazine for “The Long Shot,” by E. Alex Jung, May 19-June 1
• The New York Times Magazine for “What Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson Knows About Pain,” by Sam Anderson, September 21 at nytimes.com/magazine
• The New Yorker for “Autocracy Now!,” by Ava Kofman, June 9
• Racquet for “Bring Me Back to Life,” by Caira Conner, August 20 at racquetmag.com
• Vogue for “Blazy of Glory,” by Nathan Heller, December

16. Columns and Essays

• The American Scholar for “Raspberry Heaven,” by Garret Keizer, Spring
• The Believer for “Water Pressure,” by Rafia Zakaria, Summer
• The Guardian for “The Year After My Son Died in Childbirth,” by Poppy Noor, July 26
• The New York Times Magazine for “This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, April 6 at nytimes.com/magazine
• New York Times Opinion for three articles by M. Gessen: “The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump,” February 8, “Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived,” April 2, and “The Ruling About Passports Isn’t About ID. It’s About Social Control,” November 7, at nytimes.com/opinion
• The New Yorker for “A Further Shore,” by Tatiana Schlossberg, December 8
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine for “The Hiding Place,” by Mark Harris, May 18

17. Reviews and Criticism

• The Believer for three articles from the series “Character Studies” by Isle McElroy: “Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave,” January 29, “László Tóth in The Brutalist,” February 6, and “Toros in Anora,” March 3, at thebeliever.net
• CULTURED for three articles by Johanna Fateman: “How Cameron Rowland Became the Leading Land Artist of the 21st Century,” January 29, “72 Hours in Aspen: Matthew Barney, Issy Wood, and the Catastrophe of Life on Land,” August 6, and “Figurative Painting’s Not Dead and There’s a New Fair in Town: Johanna Fateman’s New York Art Week Diary,” September 10, at culturedmag.com
• Harper’s Magazine for “Twain Dreams,” by John Jeremiah Sullivan, June at harpers.org
• New York Magazine for two articles by Andrea Long Chu: “Good-bye, Pamela Paul,” February 7 at nymag.com, and “The Romance of Being Unreadable,” May 5-18
• 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
• The New Yorker for three articles by Kathryn Schulz: “Tangled Web,” February 17 & 24, “Westward Oy!,” May 5, and “No Way Out,” September 29
• Teen Vogue for two articles by P. Claire Dodson: “‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Album Review: A Taylor Swift Who Is Unafraid to Fail,” October 3, and “Ophelia Explained: How Taylor Swift Reimagines Shakespeare and Continues Ophelia's Legacy,” October 5

18. Public Interest

• The Atlantic for “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans,” by Jeffrey Goldberg, March 24, “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal,” by Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris, March 26, and “Signalgate, Trump, and ‘The Atlantic,’” by Jeffrey Goldberg, April 28, at theatlantic.com
• Bloomberg Businessweek for “America’s Hot Garbage Problem,” by Laura Bliss and Rachael Dottle, July 1 at bloomberg.com
• Bloomberg News for “A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving,” by Dana Hull and Craig Trudell, June 4, and “Tesla’s Dangerous Doors,” by Dana Hull, Emily Chang and Kara Carlson, September 10
• CalMatters for “The Man Who Unsolved a Murder,” by Anat Rubin, June 5
• ESPN Digital for “The Predatory Web of Sextortion Increasingly Ensnares Young Athletes,” by Dan Wetzel, August 10
• 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 Rodriguez Pons for FRONTLINE, December 10
• WIRED for “The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover,” by Vittoria Elliott, February 2, “A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System,” by Vittoria Elliott, Dhruv Mehrotra, Leah Feiger and Tim Marchman, February 4, and “Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup,’” by Makena Kelly, David Gilbert, Vittoria Elliott, Kate Knibbs, Dhruv Mehrotra, Dell Cameron, Tim Marchman, Leah Feiger and Zoë Schiffer, March 13, at wired.com
  
  

ASME Award for Fiction 2026 Finalists

• The Drift for “Mormon Lake Hotshots,” by Samuel Jensen, Summer, “Porn,” by Nick Foretek, Fall, and “The Wife,” by Elisa Gonzalez, Fall
• Elastic for “Fallen Women,” by Samantha Hunt, “Five Attempts,” by Helen Phillips, and “The Horse With the Fire in Its Mouth,” by Shruti Swamy, Issue No. 1
• The Georgia Review for “First Baiga,” by Ainur Karim, translated by Slava Faybysh, Summer, “We're Thinking of You, Your Name,” by Olivia Clare Friedman, Fall, and “Phantasmagoria,” by Sean Sam, Winter
• The New Yorker for “The Comedian,” by Ottessa Moshfegh, July 7 & 14, “The Silence,” by Zadie Smith, July 7 & 14, and “Unreasonable,” by Rivka Galchen, September 29
• 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 Finalists

1. Best News and Information Design

• National Geographic for “What Is the Tallest Mountain on Earth?,” September 16 at nationalgeographic.com
• New York Magazine for “Hijacking the Kennedys,” August 25-September 7
• The New York Times Magazine for “Finding the Pope’s Roots,” June 11, at nytimes.com/magazine
• Quanta for “How We Came to Know Earth,” September 15
• The Verge for “American War,” April 21, including “Wandering Souls,” April 22, and “For Scale,” April 23

2. Best Entertainment and Celebrity Design

• Garden & Gun for “The Eternal Optimism of Craig Melvin,” August/September
• GQ for “Michael B. Jordan Wants to Slow Down (But Not Right Now),” March, “Bigger Than Texas,” April/May, and “How Travis Kelce Spent His Summer Vacation,” September
• Rolling Stone for July-August Issue
• The Verge for “How the Creator Economy Destroyed the Internet,” December 8, including “News Daddy New York Times,” November 24, and “Stop, Shop, and Scroll,” December 8
• W Magazine for “Deep Dream State,” Volume Two, “Sprinklelina,” Volume Two, and “The Wild, Whimsical, Wonderful World of Chappell Roan,” Volume Three

3. 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
• Garden & Gun for December 2025/January 2026 Issue
• GQ for 10 Instagram posts, including “A Closer Examination of the Male Species,” “The State of Masculinity Now” and “8 Voices Spanning the Great Masculinity Divide,” September 10-24 at instagram.com/gq
• New York Times Opinion for “Finding Beauty Roasting in My Sun-Baked Car,” July 11, “Finding Beauty in a Constellation of Spiderwebs,” August 1, and “Finding Beauty in a Prison Yard,” August 29, at nytimes.com/opinion
• Texas Monthly for “The 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas,” June Issue and texasmonthly.com, and “How We Did It,” May 30 at instagram.com/texasmonthly

4. Best News and Documentary Photography

• The Atlantic for “This Is What the End of the Liberal World Order Looks Like,” photographs by Lynsey Addario, September
• National Geographic for “Can Forensic Science Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade?,” photographs by Britta Jaschinski, August
• New York Magazine for “The 12th-Floor Dragnet,” photographs by Stephanie Keith, October 20-November 2
• The New York Times Magazine for “The 36 Who Fought Back,” photographs by Victor J. Blue, July 24 at nytimes.com/magazine and August 10 Issue
• TIME for “What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced,” photographs by Philip Holsinger, March 21 at time.com

5. Best Entertainment and Celebrity Photography

• New York Magazine for “Legends of Broadway,” April 7-20, “Cole Escola Takes Little Edie Back to Grey Gardens,” Summer, and “The Culturati 50,” December 1-14, photographs by Mark Seliger
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Rock and the Hard Place,” photographs by Jack Davison, September 28
• The New Yorker for “Power Houses,” photographs by Gillian Laub, May 5 at newyorker.com and May 12 & 19 Issue
• Texas Monthly for “Opal Lee Marches On,” photographs by Shayan Asgharnia, June
• W Magazine for “The Wild, Whimsical, Wonderful World of Chappell Roan,” photographs by Tim Walker, Volume Three

6. Best Service and Lifestyle Photography

• Bon Appétit for “Bite at the Museum,” photographs by Heami Lee, May, “Hawai‘i the Local Way,” photographs by Brendan George Ko, August, and "The 20 Best New Restaurants of 2025," photographs by Evan Jenkins and others, October
• ELLE for "Sculpture Garden," September, and "Screen Gems," November, photographs by Sarah van Rij and David van der Leeuw
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Bone Hunters of Siberia,” March 12 at nytimes.com/magazine, and “The Abyss,” March 16, photographs by Evgenia Arbugaeva
• Road & Track for “Joey Versus the Curve,” April/May, “The Good Place,” June/July, and “Putting Down Roots,” December 2025/January 2026, photographs by Will Crooks
• WSJ. Magazine for “The Last Living Monet,” photographs by Sam Rock and others, July 24 at wsj.com

7. Best Still and Animated Illustrations

• The Atavist for “American Hindenburg,” illustrations by Alberto Aragón, August 30
• The Atlantic for “America's Mad King,” illustration by Ben Hickey, April 17 at theatlantic.com
• The New Yorker for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” illustration by Tim Enthoven, February 3
• Summit Journal for “Something Lost Behind the Ranges,” illustrations by Sally Deng, Spring
• The Verge for “The Long Wait for a Glimpse of Luigi,” illustrations by Molly Crabapple, February 22

8. Best Illustrated Stories

• GQ for “The GQ Guide to the Great Fashion Designer Shake-Up,” August 5 at gq.com, “Game of Jawns,” September, and “Game of Jawns,” August 5 at instagram.com/gq, by Samuel Hine, illustrations and animations by James Kerr / Scorpion Dagger
• 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
• The New Yorker for “A Mother and Her Trans Teen Decide to Leave the U.S.,” text and visuals by Sam Wolson, illustrations by Lilli Carré, August 7 at newyorker.com
• ProPublica for “The H-2A Visa Trap,” by Max Blau and Zaydee Sanchez, illustrations by Dadu Shin, September 13
• The Verge for “Wandering Souls,” by Matt Huynh, April 27

9. Best News and Information Covers

• Bloomberg Businessweek for “A New Wall,” May
• National Geographic for “This Pig Could Save Your Life,” June
• New York Magazine for “The Trap at 26 Federal Plaza,” October 20-November 2
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Rise and Fall of Eric Adams,” March 23
• The New York Times Magazine for “Inside the Collapse of the F.D.A.,” July 20

10. Best Entertainment and Celebrity Covers

• Entertainment Weekly for “Upping the Ante,” May 13
• New York Magazine for “The Yesteryear Issue,” April 7-20 Split Cover
• The New York Times Magazine for “The Rock and the Hard Place,” September 28
• T: The New York Times Style Magazine for “The Greatest Generation,” December 7 Split Cover
• Teen Vogue for “Introducing Vivian Wilson,” Special Issue, March

11. Best Service and Lifestyle Covers

• New York Magazine for “It Must Be Nice to Be a West Village Girl,” May 5-18
• Road & Track for “The Car World’s Strongest Bonding Agent,” December 2025/January 2026
• SAVEUR for Issue No. 205, Fall/Winter
• Travel + Leisure for “The Water Issue,” February
• Virtuoso, The Magazine for “The Hotel Issue,” July/August

12. Best Independent Magazine Covers

• Foreign Policy for “Trump World,” Winter
• High Country News for “Immigrant Stories,” February
• High Country News for “The Art of the Cruise,” May
• Poetry for June Issue
• Sierra for “Public Lands on the Line,” Fall

For category descriptions, visit nationalmagazineawards.org and asmeawards.org. Credits to be sent to finalists for confirmation of names and titles. Content published 2025 unless otherwise indicated. URLs may link to digital versions of print entries.

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 222 media organizations and their media partners entered the awards, submitting 864 entries in 18 categories.

The 2026 judges included nearly 250 writers, editors, art directors, photo editors and educators. A list of the judging leaders is now posted at nationalmagazineawards.org; a complete list of the judges will be posted when the winners are announced. The results of the judging are sanctioned by the National Magazine Awards Board. 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.”

Solely sponsored by ASME, 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 with the National Magazine Awards. The results of the judging are subject to the approval of the ASME Board of Directors.

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, which articulate basic principles for the conduct of magazine journalists.

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