Boca was bumping on Saturday night. The American Magazine Conference took place there over the weekend, and you know how editors can get with a little white wine and a red pen.
Glamour editor-in-chief Cyndi Leive announced that beginning next May, Ellies will be given out to online material in new categories, including reporting, public interest, feature writing, profile writing, essays, columns and commentary, reviews and criticism, and fiction. Sadly, there will be no award for best cat blog.
Ellies will also now be available for newspaper magazines, like The New York Times Magazine. The newspaper magazines are also eligible for Pultizer Prizes. This would only be a problem if people in publishing were at all shy about giving out awards.
You’re going to hear a lot about the Ellies for the next 24 hours, perhaps even 48, until the floodgates break open about whether NBC renews Scrubs.
So let’s just get through the talking points you’ll need to know this week as we sum up yesterday evening’s event at Lincoln Center.
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On his way to reviewing Washington Monthly, MediaPost blogger Larry Dobrow takes the scenic (and newspeg-worthy) route before expunging on a political magazine that’s looking more Us Weekly than Washingtonian.
Mostly, the post is a worthwhile tongue-in-cheek (we’re hoping) nudge at ASME for not inviting him as a guest or presenter at tonight’s Ellie Awards. He’s been hurt! “Don???t tell me you weren???t looking forward to the staged banter between me and an impossibly lithe Harper???s Bazaar editrix as we handed out the statuette for Least Obtrusive Use of Sidebars, 250,000-1,000,000 circulation,” he writes. And, well, we were looking forward to that. At least as much as we are Ellen DeGeneres’ video opener.
So instead of pushing past the check-in desk at Lincoln Center tonight, Larry is biding his time with a review of Washington Monthly — a magazine, as you might imagine, that hasn’t been nominated for anything this year.
If anyone is going to compare the Ellies to the Oscars without any nod at irony, it’s going to be Media Industry Newsletter EIC Steve Cohn, whose career depends on it. With all the boldface names in attendance, after all – Ellen DeGeneres opens the show with a pre-taped video; Kevin Bacon and Edie Falco will leap on stage to hand out awards to magazines who, undoubtedly, they’ve appeared in – how can one not jump to the immediate conclusion that Graydon Carter should be adding an exclusive soiree to his season?
All black tie, and while the 25 Ellie recipients (renditions of the late Alexander Cal-der’s Elephant stabile) will not get the fancy “goodie bags” (no tax problems here), there will, Kahan says, be an ASME after-party with “dessert, champagne, and a DJ.”
And thus, the ASME awards are either the new Oscars … or your cousin’s bar mitzvah. But at least they had goodie bags.
• Maybe our newfound prophet can help tell us where to hide for the second coming.
• According to Time there are people besides Anderson Cooper who influenced the world. 99 others to be exact. Of course we only care about Coop and Martha Stewart … and the fact that Stephen Colbert doesn’t read news or know who we are.
• And the tuxes served double duty (but thankfully Jann only broke out the cords once) when magazines were awarded for their content, design, and EIC’s hot behinds.
• Lindsay Lohan works harder than anyone else. (Except, of course, her publicist.)
• Meanwhile, Nicole Richie has no ass left to lose. Her shoes on the other hand? Those are dunzo.
• Keith Kelly wastes a ton of trees getting a lot of information wrong. And Maxim gets a new daddy.
• Anderson Cooper inspired us to adopt Fernando Gil and then ask him all sorts of crazy questions.
The Ellies came and went, easily trumped by news of Britney Spears‘ already known pregnancy — but even that couldn’t stop David Zinczenko and his hot ass.
And unlike previous years, the 2006 winners were spread out among many a media outlet.
While each of these mags received two awards, no publications (not even The New Yorker or the Virginia Quarterly Review) won more than two little elephants.
Two awards each went to Time Inc.’s Time, Wenner Media’s Rolling Stone, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Hearst Magazines’ Esquire, Harper’s Magazine, New York and, yes, The New Yorker from Conde Nast Publications.
Besides confirming that Jann Wenner has convinced everyone that Rolling Stone is good again, and Graydon Carter wore pants that weren’t plaid, Jim Kelly made notable appearance number two at Jazz at Lincoln Center last night.
His two ASME awards included best single copy issue for Hurricane Katrina coverage and a general excellence award. And the award for most famous managing editor amongst a sea of EICs. Oh, and a confused Meg Ryan showed. Nat Ives‘ full list of winners, after the jump.
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• Sometimes, business can be fun to read about. Especially when it is not about the business of newspapers and how the internet is destroying them. [CJR]
• Gothamist encourages our editor to leave the apartment and put her rusty journalism skills to good use. Still unsolved: the case of her craziness. [Gothamist]
• Broadway lets Chicago back in the club. [AP]
• We were upset about missing the Ellies … until we found out they will be serving Ellie-tinis. Now we’re pretty much suicidal. [FBNY]
• Whoopi Golberg probably looks prettier over the radio anyway. [ABC]
• Finally, Brooke Burke can stop having nightmares of being attacked by the Burger King guy. We, however, are still traumatized for life. [Adfreak]
Remember how much fun it was to elect people for student council back in high school? No? Well, let the ASME board of directors refresh your memory with its fabulous reenactment.
If they’re going to pick a girl to be president, 9 times out of 10, they’ll choose the homecoming queen. This year, fittingly, ASME appointed Cynthia Leive , the editor-in-chief of Glamour. VP is usually someone a bit nerdier. Like the guy who’s in all the AP classes, but noboby ever really remembers his name. Enter Evan Smith, editor at Texas Monthly. You have no idea who he is.
The cute foreign exchange student with classy sex tips always makes a great Secretary (Roberta Myers, EIC of Elle) and of course you need a spot for the popular party boy for treasurer — and we’re sure Adam Moss is great with money. Just look at those ad pages!
Lieve fills Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker’s spot as president, and the new club will begin its reign over all the land just as soon as those much awaited popularity awards … er, Ellies … are announced. Assembly dismissed, everyone please return to homeroom.
Cindi Leive Named ASME President [Dylan Stableford, Fishbowl New York]
We’ve called Jann Wenner many things, but uncompetitive is not one of them. While Conde Nast expects ASME awards from its magazines, and Hachette Filipacchi has come to terms with its lack of nominations, Wenner media offers its staffers ASME incentive.
In the form of lots of money of course.
Michael Caruso’s contract at Men’s Journal, for instance, stipulated a bonus of $5,000 for every nomination and $10,000 for every win. (The contract was made public as part of Caruso’s lawsuit against Wenner, which he departed in October.)
Our theory is that Jann charges $20 for messy desks and late meeting attendees, which go into the collective Wenner ASME fund. Then when Rolling Stone wins and Jann keeps the cash, he can claim that Michael Caruso at least had the option.
Shut Out, Again [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
• Nobody should hold bloggers to any standards of any kind. [CBS]
• From celeb stalking to blog stalking? This shit is getting extremely out of hand. [NYC Bloggers]
• Andrew Krucoff, forced to make his own fun, spends his birthday week punking the Gawks. [Young Manhattanite]
• Ryan Seacrest, don’t hold your breath. Larry King isn’t dying just yet. [NYP]
• Want to pick an ASME nominated brain? Now’s your chance to catch The Atlantic’s “ideas tour.” [Ad Age]
• Who better to start a fashion and lifestyle magazine, with no idea where its going, than Isaac Mizrahi? [WWD]
• Get your baby blue baby gifts ready to ship over to ABC. Elizabeth Vargas is having a boy. [NYP]
• In 2016, we won????????t have jobs … which we already knew. Obviously, we’ll be retired in Maui by then. [Fast Company]
• And then there are the bloggers who sidestep the dissipation of the profession by getting fired. [AAN]
• $3 million in FCC fines for boobs and orgies. Interesting, that????????s how much Colin Farrell????????s sex tape is going for. [Media Week]
• ASME shmasmes. Hey, newspapers get awards, too. [NYT]
Even though a few independent magazines, like New York, and The Atlantic received some ASME praise in the form of Ellie noms, WWD would like to remind us that the big mag companies are really where it’s all about.
Still, the day was hardly a bust for Cond???? Nast Publications (which owns WWD), which reaped a total of 24 nominations ???????? triple the number received by Time Inc., which had eight, and quadruple Hearst’s six. In the women’s fashion category, Cond???? Nast was the only media company represented …
We bet Si Newhouse comes through the not 4 Times Square Conde Nast building and threatens the former Fairchilders with promises of a cafeteria if they don’t praise the glory of the Conde.
New Yorker’s Off Year [Jeff Bercovici, WWD]
Earlier: ASME nominations: The day many a mag editor gets drunk at Michael’s
The day that EIC’s, publishers, art directors and front desk receptionists wait for all year has arrived. The 2006 ASME nominations have been announced, with some (mostly New York based) magazines being nominated more than once.
Those who received the highest number of nominations were The Atlantic (8), The Virginia Quarterly Review (6), GQ (5), Harper????????s Magazine (5) National Geographic (5), New York (5), and The New Yorker (5).
Congrats to all who were nominated, and good luck to those trying to beat The Atlantic. Nominees in General Excellence by circ below, and the rest of of the nominations after the jump. (BTW, who knew that Prevention had a higher circulation than Vogue?)
GENERAL EXCELLENCE:
Circulation under 100,000: Aperture, The Believer, Legal Affairs, Ready Made, The Virginia Quarterly Review
Circulation of 100,000 to 250,000: Chicago, Foreign Policy, Harper????????s Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Town & Country Travel
Circulation of 250,000 to 500,000: The Atlantic Monthly, Backpacker, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, Technology Review
Circulation of 500,000 to 1,000,000: Esquire, Everyday Food, House & Garden, Marie Claire, Runner????????s World, Wired
Circulation of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000: ESPN The Magazine, Fortune, Martha Stewart Living, The New Yorker, Vogue
Circulation over 2,000,000: Glamour, National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine, Prevention, Time
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• Fox is raising the stakes for American Idol advertisers, raising 30-second spot fees to $700,000 (reportedly the largest ever for a regular primetime show).
• The New Yorker got a slap on the wrist from ASME for its all-Target issue that didn’t include much (if any) notice that the retailer’s illustrations were indeed advertisements. You know, because the mag’s high-brow readers might’ve thought otherwise.
• Martha Stewart is working on a new lifestyle magazine that’s already a month behind its schedule to premiere on newsstands by Spring 2006. They’re testing titles with focus groups and right now it’s just being referred to as “the new magazine.” But no matter what, Martha’s name won’t be appearing on the cover.
• Despite the New York Post’s alleging Viacom and Comast were working together to create new super niche cable networks, heads at both media companies are denying any such arrangement.
• After much busy talk Google is finally launching its blog search engine, which is only going to give even more undeserved authority to our likelihood. Interestingly, a Google search for “blog search engine” doesn’t yet include its own site.
• Rick Kaplan’s appointment of Situation Room’s exec producer Bill Wolff as executive of MSNBC’s primetime is being met with generally positive reviews (”There????????s nothing negative about him”). Beside winning nicety awards, he can be seen chewing plenty of Nicorette, which we hope he’ll share with Keith Olbermann.