‘The 1619 Project’ helps NYT Mag snag a record number of National Magazine Award nominations

A magazine published by a newspaper has garnered the most finalist nods in the 2020 National Magazine Awards, which are among the publishing industry’s highest honors. The New York Times Magazine, under Editor-in-Chief Jake Silverstein, leads with 10 nominations, a historic high for the title. Ad Age is herewith exclusively revealing (at the end of this post) all the finalists for the 2020 NMAs, aka the Ellies, after the elephant-evoking Alexander Calder-designed stabile that serves as the award trophy (one from “a private New Jersey collection” recently sold at auction for $16,000). The American Society of Magazine Editors in association with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism will formally announce the nominations piecemeal in a Twittercast later this afternoon and the ultimate winners will be named at an awards show at Brooklyn Steel on March 12. Coming close to The New York Times Magazine’s 10 finalist nods, New York Magazine (acquired by Vox in September) snagged nine; National Geographic, published by National Geographic Partners (a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society), eight; and Bon Appétit and The New Yorker, both published by Condé Nast, six nods each. Self, a digital-only Condé Nast publication that shuttered its print edition in early 2017, has earned four nominations, as has Texas Monthly, a title owned by Houston-based private equity firm Genesis Park. Sid Holt, the executive director of ASME, tells Ad Age that he was struck by the diversity of the work among this year’s finalists; the media brands up for honors range from big general-interest magazines to women’s glossies to city magazines to special-interest titles. “But what impresses me most of all is the quality of the storytelling and the energy and inventiveness that went into every feature and production. And the writing! The finalists in Feature Writing and Profile Writing—like Nick Paumgarten’s “Unlike Any Other,” about Augusta National, or Sam Anderson’s profile of Rick Steves—will be read for years to come.” The New York Times Magazine nominations include nods for The 1619 Project, a groundbreaking initiative launched last summer (see Ad Age’s Aug. 14, 2019 coverage: “NYT launches ‘The 1619 Project’ to examine the legacy of slavery in America”). “We often talk about the power of magazine journalism to shape the national conversation,” says Holt. “If anyone ever doubted it, here’s proof.” The National Magazine Awards program has, over the past several years, increasingly honored multimedia executions and digital-only editorial excellence, while drawing a rising number of entries from media brands such as The Verge and The Trace—both of which are 2020 finalists—that have no print editions. Judges from the publishing industry and the larger journalistic community assembled over two days in January at Columbia University’s stately Pulitzer Hall to deliberate over entries. Set to add some old-school glossy swagger to the March 12 awards show: former Esquire Editor-in-Chief David Granger, who will be inducted into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame as a part of the ceremony. The ASME Award for Fiction will also be awarded that night to the previously announced winner, The Paris Review, for three stories: “Under the Ackee Tree,” by Jonathan Escoffery; “Foxes,” by Kimberly King Parsons; and “Howl Palace,” by Leigh Newman. The complete list of 2020 National Magazine Award finalists: General Excellence, News, Sports and Entertainment • The California Sunday Magazine • ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Cover Story • The Marshall Project • New York • The New York Times Magazine General Excellence, Service and Lifestyle • Bon Appétit • Cosmopolitan • National Geographic Traveler • Self • T: The New York Times Style Magazine General Excellence, Special Interest • Atlanta • Audubon • The Hollywood Reporter • National Parks • The Trace General Excellence, Literature, Science and Politics • Aperture • Oxford American • Quanta • Stranger’s Guide • Virginia Quarterly Review Design • 1843 • Bon Appétit • Fast Company • GQ • New York Photography • Aperture • GQ • National Geographic • Time • WSJ. The Wall Street Journal Magazine Feature Design • Bon Appétit for “The Hot 10: America’s Best New Restaurants 2019” • National Geographic for “Countdown to a New Era in Space” • National Geographic for “Vanishing” • New York for “How to Major in Unicorn” • Vox for “These 3 Supertrees Can Protect Us From Climate Collapse” Feature Photography • National Geographic for “The Immortal Corpse,” photographs by Lynn Johnson • New York for “America Has a New National Pastime,” photographs by Martin Schoeller • The New York Times Magazine for “Brothers, Sisters, Strangers,” photographs by Eli Baden-Lasar • The New Yorker for “Ghost Towers,” photographs by Hashem Shakeri • Time for “A Harbinger of Things to Come,” photographs by Adam Ferguson Website • Emergence • The Marshall Project • New York • Self • Vox Digital Innovation • The Believer with support from the Tran Thi Oanh Black Mountain Institute Fund for “Cabramatta,” by Matt Huynh • Emergence in partnership with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival for “Language Keepers,” by Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee • The Marshall Project in partnership with the Guardian for “Detained,” by Emily Kassie • National Geographic for “The Atlas of Moons” • ProPublica in partnership with the Charleston Gazette-Mail for “A Guide to Every Permitted Natural Gas Well in West Virginia,” by Al Shaw, ProPublica, and Kate Mishkin, The Charleston Gazette-Mail Social Media • Bon Appétit for “Thanksgiving” • Mother Jones for “Disinformation” • National Geographic for “Wildlife Tourism” • The New Yorker for “Food” • Self for “Reproductive Healthcare” Podcasting • Gimlet for two episodes of “Reply All”: “Feral Hogs,” hosted by PJ Vogt, and “The Real Enemy,” hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman • Longreads in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting for three episodes of “Bundyville: The Remnant”: “The Explosion,” “The Bomber” and “The Martyr” • The New York Times Magazine for three episodes of “1619,” hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones: “The Fight for a True Democracy,” “The Economy That Slavery Built” and “The Birth of American Music” • The New York Times Magazine for three episodes of “Still Processing,” hosted by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham: “Yeehaw,” “Chappelle” and “Wake” • ProPublica and WNYC for three episodes of “Trump, Inc.”: “How a Nigerian Presidential Candidate Hired a Trump Lobbyist and Ended Up in Trump’s Lobby,” hosted by Ilya Marritz and Meg Cramer; “Ukraine,” by Andrea Bernstein, Katie Zavadski, Jake Pearson and Ilya Marritz; and “The Diplomat, the Machers, and the Oligarch,” hosted by Ilya Marritz and Andrea Bernstein Video • Bon Appétit with Condé Nast Entertainment for three episodes of “Gourmet Makes” with Claire Saffitz: “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Ferrero Rocher,” “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Hot Pockets” and “Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Ruffles” • National Geographic for “She Donated Her Body to Science, and Now She’ll Live Forever,” by Lynn Johnson • The New Yorker for “A Line Birds Cannot See,” directed and produced by Amy Bench • Topic for “Dieorama,” directed by Kevin Staake • Vice News for “Outlaw Erections,” by Oliver Noble, Michael Shade and Jed Oelbaum Single-Topic Issue • Bloomberg Businessweek for “The Elements” • MIT Technology Review for “The China Issue” • National Geographic for “A World on the Move” • Popular Science for “Make It Last” • The Washington Post Magazine for “Prison” Personal Service • Audubon for “Start Here! Your Guide to Climate Action,” reporting and editing by Andrew Del-Colle, Breanna Draxler, Kevin Dupzyk, Rene Ebersole, Martha Harbison, Janet Marinelli, Andy McGlashen and Hannah Waters • Cosmopolitan for “Your Non-Scary Guide to Going to Rehab,” by Andrea Stanley, and “How to Go to Rehab,” by Kiera Carter and Kaitlin Menza • O, The Oprah Magazine for “The Agony and, Yes, the Ecstasy of Menopause,” by Robin Marantz Henig • Philadelphia for “Ouch,” by Brian Howard, and “Win the War on Drugs,” by Gina Tomaine • Self for “Black Maternal Mortality” Leisure Interests • 5280 for “Sheer Beauty,” by Lindsey B. King • Bon Appétit for “Absolutely Perfect,” by Alex Beggs, and “Making Perfect: Thanksgiving” • New York for “The Great Pod Rush Has Only Just Begun” • Texas Monthly for “Long Live Honky Tonks!” by Christian Wallace • Whisky Advocate for “The World’s Greatest Whisky Cities” Reporting • Fortune for “Epidemic of Fear,” by Erika Fry • Mother Jones in partnership with Type Investigations for “Inside the US Marshals’ Secretive, Deadly Detention Empire,” by Seth Freed Wessler • New York for “Before, and After, the Jogger,” by Sarah Weinman • The New York Times Magazine in partnership with ProPublica for “False Witness,” by Pamela Colloff • The Verge for two articles by Casey Newton: “The Trauma Floor” and “Bodies in Seats” Feature Writing (NOTE: ASME elected to name more finalists for this category because of the volume of entries received) • The Believer for “Las Marthas,” by Jordan Kisner • Bloomberg Businessweek for “Vanillanomics,” by Monte Reel • Harper’s Magazine for “Lost at Sea,” by Joe Kloc • The New York Times Magazine for “All That Glitters,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner • The New York Times Magazine for “The Schoolteacher and the Genocide,” by Sarah A. Topol • The New Yorker for “Unlike Any Other,” by Nick Paumgarten • Texas Monthly for “Angels in East Texas,” by Wes Ferguson Profile Writing • The Georgia Review for “Jerry’s Dirt,” by Jacob Baynham • New York for “Elizabeth Warren’s Classroom Strategy,” by Rebecca Traister • New York for “Walking Time Bomb,” by Amy Wallace • The New York Times Magazine for “Rick Steves Wants to Set You Free,” by Sam Anderson • The New Yorker for “What Are You Laughing At?” by Vinson Cunningham Essays and Criticism • The Believer for “Good Shepherds,” by Meghan O’Gieblyn • Pitchfork for three reviews by Rawiya Kameir: “Ariana Grande: ‘thank u, next,’” “Lizzo: ‘Cuz I Love You’” and “Kanye West: ‘Jesus Is King’” • Poetry for “Tactile Art,” by John Lee Clark • The Nation for “India: Intimations of an Ending,” by Arundhati Roy • Virginia Quarterly Review for “The Ladder Up,” by Carina del Valle Schorske Columns and Commentary • Catapult for three columns by s.e. smith: “When Disability Is a Toxic Legacy,” “The Ugly Beautiful and Other Failings of Disability Representation” and “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Mental Health and Medication” • Foreign Policy for four articles from “Decoder”: “India Has a Mindset Problem,” by Ravi Agrawal; “Why Young Koreans Love to Splurge,” by Jeongmin Kim; “Repent for Your Frequent Flyer Miles!” by Peter Kuras; and “Ukrainian Corruption Is Trump’s Native Language,” by Marci Shore • The New Yorker for three columns by Jia Tolentino: “Kanye West’s Sunday Service Is Full of Longing and Self-Promotion,” “Love, Death, and Begging for Celebrities to Kill You” and “E. Jean Carroll’s Accusation Against Donald Trump, and the Raising, and Lowering, of the Bar” • T: The New York Times Style Magazine for three columns by Ligaya Mishan: “Nothing Sacred,” “An Assault on the Tongue” and “Interlopers” • Texas Monthly for three columns by Sterry Butcher: “Lines Through the Sand,” “Thoughts on a Mixed-up Horse” and “Man of Letters” Public Interest • Consumer Reports for three articles by Rachel Rabkin Peachman: “Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper Should Be Recalled, Consumer Reports Says,” “Decades-Old Law Hides Dangerous Products and Impedes Recalls” and “Inclined Sleeper Deaths Rise to 50 as Industry Continues to Sell the Products” • The New York Times Magazine for “The 1619 Project” • The New York Times Magazine for “The China Connection,” by Alex W. Palmer • ProPublica for three articles from the series “Disaster in the Pacific”: “Fight the Ship,” by T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi; “Blame Over Justice,” by Megan Rose; and “Faulty Equipment, Lapsed Training, Repeated Warnings,” by Robert Faturechi, Megan Rose and T. Christian Miller • Texas Monthly and the Texas Tribune with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists for “No Defense,” by Neena Satija

‘The 1619 Project’ helps NYT Mag snag a record number of National Magazine Award nominations

Featured Stories