NEW YORK — Vanity Fair is the comeback kid among the finalists for the 2005 American Magazine Awards, which were announced Thursday by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
While the magazine didn’t receive a single nomination last year, it garnered seven this year, ranging from general excellence in magazines with circulation between one and two million, to the writing categories of feature, profile (two nominations), reviews and criticism and columns and commentary (also two nominations).
“I used to think seven was my lucky number,” said editor in chief Graydon Carter. “Now I actually believe it. [I’m] very pleased for the nominees and those often overlooked, but heroic, wage apes who edit them.” Those wage apes were toasted with champagne at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Following editor in chief Adam Moss’ comprehensive redesign of New York magazine, that title picked up three nominations, including photography and general excellence (circulation 250,000 to 500,000), a category the weekly hadn’t been cited in since 1993. “The Strategist,” New York’s lifestyle pages, were also nominated in a new ASME category, magazine section, which also included AARP’s “Navigator,” ESPN’s “The Jump,” Popular Science’s “How 2.0” and “Warmups” from Runner’s World.
“That category was especially competitive,” said Moss. “We were up against familiar, established, adored parts of other magazines, and for a new section like this to get recognized so quickly was especially good.”
Details picked up three mentions — in general excellence (250,000 to 500,000), design and photography. Esquire, which won the most awards of any magazine last year (four), also received three nominations in 2005, for general excellence (500,000 to one million), feature writing and essays. The other men’s titles mentioned were GQ, with nominations for feature writing and food criticism, and Men’s Health, nominated for general excellence (one to two million).
Women’s magazines didn’t fare quite as well in the top ASME category. Last year, Real Simple, Vogue, Martha Stewart Living and O, The Oprah Magazine were all nominated in general excellence, but only Real Simple returned to that category in 2005. For two million-plus circulation, Glamour and Good Housekeeping were also general excellence nominees, while Self and O were recognized for personal service and leisure interests, respectively.
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This year, it was Vogue’s turn to be shut out. After receiving three nominations in 2004, Vogue was overlooked entirely, meaning W was the only high fashion magazine to receive a nomination, for design.
For the eighth year in a row, The New Yorker led with the most nominations — 10 in nine categories, including one for Richard Avedon’s “Democracy” portfolio, published shortly after the photographer’s death last fall. (Like WWD, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Details, GQ, Vogue, Glamour, Self and W are divisions of Advance Publications Inc.)
Recent buzz about The Believer should continue to build after the two-year-old magazine received its first nomination, in the under 100,000 general excellence category. Also picking up their first nods were Baseline, 5280, BabyTalk, Departures, Cook’s Illustrated, Country Home, Everyday Food, ReadyMade, Ski, Kids, Martha Stewart Weddings and The Virginia Quarterly Review.
Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria on April 13.