National Magazine Awards for 2014

May 2, 2014 6:24 AM

The American Society of Magazine Editors announced its 2014 winners at last night's annual awards presentation in New York (complete list here). While Fast Company won Magazine of the Year and New York Magazine won both General Excellence and Website—and Cosmopolitan brought home its first-ever award (Personal Service) for "Your Cosmo Guide to Contraception"—below the fold is a selection of the winners from individual categories that are all available on the web.

• Columns and Commentary: The New Yorker's "Shark Week," "Difficult Women," and "Private Practice," by Emily Nussbaum (previously)
• Essays and Criticism: The New Yorker's "Thanksgiving in Mongolia," by Ariel Levy (previously)
• Feature Photography: W's "Stranger Than Paradise," Tilda Swinton photographed by Tim Walker
• Feature Writing: The New Yorker's "A Loaded Gun" by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Fiction: The New Yorker's "The Embassy of Cambodia," by Zadie Smith
• Multimedia: National Geographic's "The Last Chase," by Robert Draper
• Public Interest: TIME's "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," by Steven Brill [subscription required]
• Reporting: The New York Times' "The Dream Boat," by Luke Mogelson, photographs by Joel van Houdt (previously)
• Video: Glamour's "Confronting Cancer: BRCA1 & BRCA2 Gene Mutations," "Recovery: Meds. And Love," and "Life Post-Surgery: Back on Stage," from its "Screw You Cancer" series.

Also, the Magazine Section award was won by newcomer Modern Farmer, which its editor-in-chief jokingly called "the farming magazine for media professionals" (previously, previously, et al.).

posted by Doktor Zed (10 comments total)

Emily Nussbaum is a treasure. Oddly enough, I think the first thing I ever read by her was an essay on, among other things, Buffy in Cosmopolitan.
posted by griphus at 6:31 AM on May 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

The photos in Modern Farmer are beautiful, but I just cannot see myself subscribing, no matter how gorgeous the photography is. Also, the ham cam and the goat cam are online. Also, I think the award may have killed their site this morning.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:49 AM on May 2, 2014

"Your Cosmo Guide to Contraception": "Take charge and give him a super-sexy surprise in the sack, with this home vasectomy kit!"

</easyjoke>

My only real criticism is that they don't say what their definition of "effective" is. The numbers look like "pregnancy-free rate after one year of typical use", but I could easily picture someone interpreting effectiveness numbers on a lifetime or a per-encounter basis and becoming grossly over- or under-confident.
posted by roystgnr at 6:55 AM on May 2, 2014

WHAT HO, MODS: The first couple of Glamour video links don't seem to work. You can get to them via the one that does, and the series -- which was new to me -- is quite good. I hope she adds more over the next months.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:26 AM on May 2, 2014

Huh. So the takeaway is apparently that I should start reading the New Yorker again?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:50 AM on May 2, 2014

Once again, Cat Fancy walks away empty-handed. The whole thing's a scam, I tell you.
posted by neroli at 7:51 AM on May 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Difficult Women" is a fantastic essay that I somehow missed (about Sex and the City and HBO), so thanks for this post!
posted by likeatoaster at 9:02 AM on May 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

I've been subscribing to Modern Farmer since just after the first issue came out. It's really quite good. I'm dubious that any farmer can actually afford some of the gear that they write about, but their articles on farming are interesting and educational. Recommended.
posted by waldo at 9:57 AM on May 2, 2014

Thanks, I missed the Zadie Smith story!
posted by viggorlijah at 7:43 PM on May 2, 2014

I've read a few of these and I'm looking forward to the rest. Thanks, Doktor Zed.
posted by homunculus at 12:22 AM on May 4, 2014