Have the National Magazine Awards Become Too New York-Centric?

The finalists for the National Magazines Awards were announced yesterday. And—like every year—the list included some surprises (Good), snubs (Esquire) and the requisite head-scratchers (Bloomberg Markets?) that make any awards process fun.

And, also like every year, the list, like a lot of things in the consumer magazine industry, was dominated by a disproportionate number of magazines about or originating in New York.

Of the 128 finalists for this year’s Ellies, at least 78 are based (or have significant staff) in New York City. That’s over 60 percent, for those of you scoring at home. (The New Yorker and New York magazine combined for 21 nominations alone.)

It’s always been a criticism of the media at-large. It locks its viewfinder on New York—to a lesser extent, L.A.—and nothing else. And the media that covers media—particularly the journalists that cover the magazine and advertising industries—are especially prone to overstating the importance of New York, or, perhaps more accurately, not expanding the scope beyond Manhattan enough.

I think it’s a valid gripe to have, but an unfair one, too. For starters, what is a journalist covering the magazine industry supposed to do when the American Society of Magazine Editors is not exactly hunting down new nominees (sorry, the Virginia Quarterly Review doesn’t count anymore)? And when virtually every major magazine publisher works or has a sales office in New York, it’s tough not to have your view distorted.

While we, at FOLIO:, always talk about representing the entire swath of magazine publishers in such far-flung places as “Washington D.C.” and “Chicago,” we’re admittedly part of the machinery that gives New York its big head. (We’ll shoot video and liveblog the Ellies in May, for example, like every other magazine media outlet—and we should.)

But who cares what I think. What do you think? Has ASME become too New York-centric? Have the National Magazine Awards become the New York Magazine Awards? Will the MPA ever tire of Adam Moss?

Drop your comments below …

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New Yorker Leads National Magazine Awards Field with 12 Nominations

By Dylan Stableford --

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So what else is New??

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 07:17.

My god, the NMA Awards have ALWAYS been NYC-centric. Having been in journalism for well over 30 years and worked at the pubs that have won...and not won...in NYC and elsewhere, this has always been a circle jerk among the NYC publishing community. Sometimes they will throw in a surprise just to make it look as if they know the rest of the world exists, but for the most part it's a contest among a close-knit group of peers. And it has become So predictable that it's now rather laughable and pathetic. They should shake up the categories and make a concerted effort to bring in new faces in the process.

duh....

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 09:38.

duh....

Nothing new to report

Submitted by KDavis on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 10:12.

The awards have always been the New York Magazine Awards. Very rarely do those outside the city even get a look or have a chance for consideration. And it's such a big deal when the little mag that could breaks through! It shouldn't be like that, but it's par for the course.

parochial

Submitted by DA on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 11:22.

That famous Saul Steinberg New Yorker cover from 1976, "View of the World from 9th Avenue," (sometimes referred to as "A Parochial New Yorker's View of the World") is a good symbol of these awards. It is the one that depicts a map of the world as seen by self-absorbed New Yorkers. The illustration is split in two, with the bottom half of the image showing Manhattan's 9th Avenue & 10th Avenue and the Hudson River, with the top half depicting the rest of the world. The rest of the US is the size of the three NYC blocks and is drawn as a square, with a thin brown strip along the Hudson representing "Jersey," the names of Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Kansas City, and Chicago and Texas, Utah, and Nebraska scattered among a few rocks for the U.S. beyond New Jersey. Then there's the Pacific Ocean, maybe half again as wide as the Hudson, separating the US from three flat land masses labeled China, Japan, and Russia. New Yorkers and magazine staffs fancy themselves as world-wise, but in fact they are they parochial creatures lampooned in the New Yorker illustration. It wouldn't really even occur to many of these folks that there might be some quality journalism worth recognizing outside of NYC.

re: parochial

Submitted by Dylan Stableford on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 12:50.

... right, which is actually why I included that cover in my little Photoshop illustration above. (There's a famous cartoon map of the U.S. that wipes out the entire Midwest, but I couldn't find it online.)

Shawt stop is the best position they is.

Submitted by Hans on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 18:44.

I think Folio has, over the years, done a great job of escaping New York's gravitationall pull. I couldn't agree more that ASME is a NYC club of the first water. It will only get worse. In the past, the media world really WAS centered in NYC. For some intervening years, there has been some terrific work and inspiring innovation elsewhere -- even in the GASP! Midwest and Northwest. But now we're seeing a retrenching of media in NYC because it's the marquee brands that are monopolizing the attention economy. I laugh when I hear that advertising budgets are migrating online and that NYC pubs are paying mid six figures to interactive-ad sales people. You know what? AD sales ARE migrating online -- to the same goddamn publications they were migrating to in print: the Times, the NYorker, New York magazine, and a handful of others. The rest of y'all are screwed. And the biggest irony of all? Even marquee "journalists" and editors can't afford to live anywhere NEAR New York City anymore. Welcome to the New Gilded Age, circa 1928...

Right on, Hans

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 18:52.

Ha ha. The Ellies are a great distillation and metaphor for the entire industry. Not what you know, but who you know. Not whether you can report or write, but where your byline has already been. There was a great quote from the NYorker's fiction editor, Deborah Triesman, years ago that went something like this: Any unagented writer who thinks they have a chance of making it past a first reader at the New Yorker is delusional.

re: Right on, Hans

Submitted by Hans on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 19:05.

What is the purpose of the NMA's? To recongize great journalism and writing. Who judges them? The chief editors of ASME, most of whom work at the magazines that are routinely nominated. Which magazines commission the best work? Often times, the ones with the most money. Which ones have the most money? The ones in New York that win the NMAs. Vicious circle? Or onanistic mobius strip? You decide. The saddest truth here is that great work IS being done in the underground and alternative press, and some of these pubs could make A LOT of hay out of a tiny bit of sunshine. I love the poke at Virginia Quarterly, cuz ASME deserves it. But that was huge for VQ years ago, after Ted Genoways took over the editorship -- a worthy nobody from nowhere doing AMAZING work. It's insidious, too though, because it promulgates the myth that runs opposite of your anecdote about Deborah Triesman at the NYorker, and that's that ANYONE ANYWHERE can do work that merits one of these awards. Journalism's equivalent of hoopdreams -- and an even more vicious and unforgiving meritocracy.

Of 128 Ellies finalists, 78 are based in NYC.

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