Fajardo, Puerto Rico — This year’s American Magazine Conference, which drew to a close on Wednesday, of course had its ups and downs.
For one thing, the resort where it was held, the Wyndham El Conquistador, is situated on a side cliff, its two levels connected only by a painfully slow funicular railway.
As usual, the event drew a few big names (Sen. John McCain, Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott, Martha Stewart), a few job seekers (former Gruner + Jahr ceo Russell Denson, among others) and scores of editors, publishers and executives. As usual, it generated a few nuggets of serious interest to the industry — most notably, in this case, the announcement of Readership.com, a service that aims to be the Nielsen of the magazine industry — and scores of amusing anecdotes. And, as usual, the whole thing felt like summer camp for media types.
And what is camp without some end-of-summer awards to take home to mom and dad?
Related Articles
- Best Boy on the Milk Carton: GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson. Though he was ostensibly in Puerto Rico for the better part of a day, Nelson seemed to materialize on stage for 20 minutes, then vanish again. Apparently somebody forgot to tell him schmoozefests are for schmoozing.
- Best Public Audition: Vibe design director Florian Bachleda‘s 10-minute presentation on creating Vibe’s new look, which generated more buzz than the appearances by Martha Stewart or Wal-Mart ceo Lee Scott. Considering the number of top editors in the room, it might be wise for Vibe to re-up Bachleda’s contract sooner rather than later.
- Best Bathing Attire: Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, who didn’t let the presence of dozens of his peers stand in the way of his donning Speedo-like black briefs to swim laps. Fortunately for spectators, Whitaker had the physique to pull it off, according to a female eyewitness: “He was in good upper-body shape, very muscular thighs.”
- Best Snappy Comeback: Elle editor in chief Roberta Myers, who watched as Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith dubbed Britney Spears, pictured pregnant on Elle’s cover, a “man-made disaster.” When Myers got her turn on stage, she pointed out that the issue in question, October, was on pace to be Elle’s best seller in 10 years.
- The Good Sport Award: David Zinczenko, whose obituary no doubt will begin by mentioning his awkward tête-à-tête with Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show.” If the Men’s Health editor in chief had a dollar for every time someone brought it up at the conference, he might have amassed almost as much as the Magazine Publishers of America paid Stewart to bash magazines.
- Best Bill Clinton Impression: Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, who moonlights as a stand-up comedian when he’s not busy protecting his sources. At a dinner with Sen. John McCain on Sunday night, Cooper’s boss, Jim Kelly, encouraged him to perform his Clinton and George Bush imitations for the table (which also included Whitaker). Kelly stopped short of asking Cooper to do his McCain, however.
- Best Casual Male: New York editor in chief Adam Moss, who beat the heat at Sunday night’s banquet by wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. The soaring temperatures were no joke; one elderly conventioneer even passed out from heat exhaustion, but quickly came to with the help of tech journalist and former Army medic Ken Sanders.
- Second-Best Bill Clinton Impression: John McCain. In the middle of a two-hour gambling session, the Arizona senator introduced himself to an attractive young brunette and invited her to join him at the craps table. He soon declared the woman, who was attending the conference on behalf of a Rhode Island-based technology firm, to be his lucky charm, and forbade her to leave while his winning streak lasted.
- Best Loser: Playboy editorial director Christopher Napolitano, who shrugged off several hundred dollars in blackjack losses, saying, “I’m lucky in love.” The fates rewarded him for his persistence with a winning run at craps that lasted until the casino closed at 3 a.m.
- Best Hidden Talent: Martha Stewart Omnimedia executive Cyndi Stivers, who passed the time during a boring session by playing Hangman with the names of media personalities. The former Time Out New York editor in chief demonstrated an uncanny knack for picking names with a minimum of Es, Ts, Rs and Ss.
- Best Overreach: Public relations scion Steven Rubenstein, who attempted to keep up with Runner’s World editor in chief David Willey and publisher Andrew Hersam on a jog. “Since I discovered David and I ran the same marathon, I thought I’d be OK,” said Rubenstein, who ended up dropping out halfway through. “I was wrong. Kind of like me shopping with Anna Wintour.”
- Best Unintentional Pun: National Geographic editor in chief Chris Johns, who transformed a roomful of grownups into giggling third-graders when he advised against sucking blood from the head of a fighting cock. (He was talking about avian flu, people.)
- International Man of Mystery Award: Sync editor in chief Tony Romando, who was asked over and over about the significance of the string of exotic characters tattooed on his forearm. After a dozen or so times explaining that the figures are stylized Burmese letters whose meaning he does not reveal, Romando switched to long sleeves.