The winners of the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards were announced tonight at a gala at The Carlu in Toronto. [Version française] [List of Winners PDF] [View the Photos]
Maisonneuve was named Canada’s Magazine of the Year—Print at the conclusion of the awards presentation. The Montreal-based, English-language quarterly of arts, culture and ideas was nominated for a total of 9 NMAs this year, and added a Silver award in the category Art Direction for a Single Magazine Article to the prestigious Magazine of the Year award, which it also won in 2004.
TodaysParent.com, the online companion of Today’s Parent magazine, was named Magazine of the Year—Digital. Heather Robertson received the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement. Liam Casey was named Best New Magazine Writer and The Coveteur was named Best New Visual Creator (see more below).
The Walrus led all magazines with 6 Gold and 6 Silver awards. This is the 8th consecutive year in which The Walrus has either had the most or tied for the most Gold awards, and the seventh time during that span in which they’ve won the most total awards (Gold and Silver combined).
The Grid – new to the NMAs this year after launching in May 2011 – won 4 Gold and 2 Silver awards. Toronto Life won 4 Gold awards and 1 Silver, followed by Report on Business (3 Gold, 4 Silver), L’actualité (3 Gold, 2 Silver), explore (3 Gold, 1 Silver), Sportsnet (2 Gold) and The New Quarterly / Arc Poetry Magazine (2 Gold).
Top Award-Winning Magazines at the 35th National Magazine Awards:
| Magazine | Gold | Silver | HM |
| The Walrus | 6 | 6 | 20 |
| The Grid | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| Toronto Life | 4 | 1 | 19 |
| Report on Business | 3 | 4 | 23 |
| L’actualité | 3 | 2 | 17 |
| explore | 3 | 1 | 15 |
| Sportsnet | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| The New Quarterly / Arc Poetry Magazine |
2 | 0 | 1 |
| Maclean’s | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| Flare | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Eighteen Bridges | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| Cottage Life | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Maisonneuve | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Canadian House & Home | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Elle Canada | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| More | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Event | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Canadian Art | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Fashion Magazine | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Also winning a Gold award were Chatelaine, Châtelaine, DesignLines Toronto, Québec Science, Ryerson Review of Journalism, Sharp, This Magazine, Today’s Parent and Urbania.
Winning one Silver award were Canadian Business, Canadian Family, Canadian Geographic, enRoute, Fiddlehead, Nuvo, Ottawa Magazine, The New Quarterly and Up Here.
NOTABLE WINNERS
Leading all individual winners with 3 Gold awards was Art Director Vanessa Wyse of The Grid, who swept the all three of the design categories Magazine Covers, Art Direction for a Single Magazine Article, and Art Direction for an Entire Issue. In each case the celebrated article/issue was The Grid’s May 19, 2011 issue “Got Spunk?” This is the first time that one publication has swept these three categories since 1998 (Shift magazine).
The most decorated individual article of the evening was “Where Asbestos is Just a Fact of Life” by John Gray and Stephanie Nolen (Report on Business), which was nominated for a record 5 awards and won Gold in Business, Silver in Politics & Public Interest, and Honourable Mention in Health & Medicine, Investigative Reporting, and Science, Technology & the Environment.
The article “Camping 101” by Kevin Callan and Ryan Stuart in explore was a double Gold winner in the integrated category Single Service Article Package and the written category How-To. This is the third straight year that explore has won Gold in Single Service Article Package, and the third time overall that the magazine has won Gold in How-To.
The award for Best Single Issue went to “Gros” from Urbania, the Montreal-based arts quarterly which won this award for the second year in a row.
Dominique Forget of L’actualité led all writers with 5 nominations for 5 different articles, and won Gold in Service: Personal Finance & Business (“Impôts: la colère monte”).
Paul Wilson was perhaps the most unique writer celebrated, as he won both Gold and Silver in the category One-of-a-Kind for “Adrift on the Nile” (The Walrus) and “The Archivist” (The Walrus).
The Gold award in the integrated category Words & Pictures went to the editorial team at Toronto Life for “Going Mobile.”
The new magazine Eighteen Bridges won its first National Magazine Award when Don Gillmor was named the Gold winner in Arts & Entertainment (“All In”). The article, also nominated in Personal Journalism, examines the great career of the late Paul Quarrington, a 5-time NMA winner. This is Gillmor’s 10th National Magazine Award. Eighteen Bridges had 10 nominations this year.
VISUAL CATEGORIES
Illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler won Gold in Spot Illustration (“Post-Secondary Distress” in More) and Silver in Illustration (“Death of the Salesman” in Canadian Business). This is Eggenschwiler’s second Gold for Spot Illustration, and he now holds 5 National Magazine Awards. Selena Wong (“Meet You at the Door”; The Walrus) won her first National Magazine Award after winning the Gold for Illustration.
In Photojournalism & Photo Essay, the Gold award went to “In the Shadow of the Oilsands” by Ian Willms, published in This Magazine. Donald Weber took the top prize in Creative Photography for “Quniqjuk, Qunbuq, Quabaa” in Canadian Art. DesignLines won its first-ever National Magazine Award with a Gold in Still-Life Photography for “From: To:” by Naomi Finlay. Photographer Daniel Ehrenworth took the Gold award for Portrait Photography for “Project Privacy” in Cottage Life. He won the Silver in this category last year.
In the Fashion category, Flare won Gold for the third year in a row, and in fact swept Gold and Silver. Photographer Chris Nicholls, art director Tanya Watt and stylist Fiona Green took Gold for “Your Majesty.” The same photographer/art director duo joined stylist Elizabeth Cabral in winning Silver with “Nature of Prints.”
For the first time this year, Beauty was awarded as a separate category from Fashion, and Sharp won the Gold for “Fragrances” (Art Direction by Adam Taylor; Photography by Adrian Armstrong).
The Homes & Gardens category saw a sweep by Canadian House & Home, with “Among the Treetops” winning Gold (Mandy Milks, Michael Graydon, Suzanne Dimma) and “Mindfully Minimal” taking Silver.
WRITTEN CATEGORIES
Economist Pierre Fortin won Gold in Columns for his regular column “Économie” in L’actualité. This is the third year that Fortin has won Gold in this category (he also won in 2003 and 2007), which matches Robert Fulford and Benoît Aubin for the most all time in Columns.
In Editorial Package, Toronto Life (“The Digital Issue”) and The Grid (“A Chef’s Guide to Toronto”) tied for the Gold award.
“What You Don’t Know About Stephen Harper” by Paul Wells and John Geddes (Maclean’s) took the Gold award for Politics & Public Interest.
In the Humour category, Scott Feschuk won his second National Magazine Gold Award for “A Reading from the Book of Tebow” (Sportsnet). In fact, Feschuk defeated himself in this category, as he was also nominated for two other articles this year in Humour.
Brett Popplewell’s article “The Team that Disappeared” won Gold in Sports & Recreation for Sportsnet, which in its first year at the NMAs (after launching in September 2011) received 4 nominations, including one of three finalist spots for Magazine of the Year (Print)
Alison Motluk won Gold for Investigative Reporting (“A Political Meltdown”; The Walrus). Motluk won Silver in this category last year.
The Walrus swept the Society category, with Katherine Ashenburg’s “The Long Goodbye” winning the Gold. Also from The Walrus, “Madam Premier” by Lisa Gregoire won Gold in Profiles.
Catherine Dubé won her 7th National Magazine Award when she took Gold in the category Service: Health & Family (“Demain, des centres à 7$ par jour pour les vieux?”; L’actualité).
Nathan Vanderklippe’s “A Pipleline Runs Through It” (Report on Business) won Gold in Science, Technology & the Environment. The same article also won Honourable Mention in Business and in Travel.
Charles Wilkins won his 3rd Gold National Magazine Award, this year taking the top prize in the Travel category for “The Big Blue” in explore.
The article “Quand je serai plus là, qui va s’occuper de mes poissons?” by Pascale Millot from Québec Science was the Gold winner in Health & Medicine.
The Gold award in Personal Journalism went to Anne Marie Lecomte for “Parti sans bruit” (Châtelaine).
Chris Nuttall-Smith won Gold in Service: Lifestyle for “Where to Eat Now” in Toronto Life. This is Nuttall-Smith’s 4th individual National Magazine Award.
In the category Best Short Feature—under 2000 words—there was a tie for Gold between Heather O’Neill (“When Your Mother is a Stranger”; Chatelaine) and JJ Lee (“On the First Time He Told a Girl She Was Beautiful”; ELLE Canada).
In 2011 the literary magazines The New Quarterly and Arc Poetry Magazine published a joint issue, and from the pages of this issue Alice Major won Gold in the Essays category (“The Ultraviolet Catastrophe”) and Matthew Holmes won Gold in Poetry (“The Failing of Purity”).
Event magazine – the thrice-yearly literary review from Douglas College – swept the awards in the Fiction category for the second consecutive year, with Bill Gaston (“Four Corners”) winning Gold and Wayde Compton (“The Instrument”) taking the Silver.
DIGITAL ACHIEVEMENT
Today’s Parent (TodaysParent.com) won the award for Magazine of the Year—Digital. The judges lauded the site’s clean layout, which exudes calmness and utilizes various typeface styles to direct the reader to different features. In branding, it’s perfectly aligned with its print parent and creates added value for its users with interactivity, relevance and overall quality.
For the second consecutive year, The Walrus magazine won the Gold award for Best Digital Design for its companion site WalrusMagazine.com. FashionMagazine.com took the Silver.
The popular TorontoLife.com production “TIFF.to,” which covers the annual Toronto International Film Festival, won the Gold for Best Multimedia Feature. FashionMagazine.com’s “At the Shows / Spring 2012” won Silver.
BEST NEW CREATIVE TALENT
Liam Casey won the award for Best New Magazine Writer for his article “Suicide Notes” in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Said the NMAF judges: “In a rare combination of eloquent personal journalism and meticulous reporting, Liam Casey has confronted a highly charged question that has been dodged for so long – the practice in newsrooms of non-reporting of suicide. With tremendous honesty he has put himself inside the story of the pain of depression and emerged with a strong commentary on journalism. Not many writers have made such an impact with one of their first pieces.”
The award for Best New Visual Creator went to The Coveteur, for its photography layout “Gifts” in Report on Business. Said the NMAF judges: “A tasteful curation of photographs that succeed in magnifying the desirability of objects, The Coveteur’s ‘Gifts’ are a perfect balance of style and composition. The look and feel engages the viewer effortlessly, which speaks to the impressive talent of this young trio: stylist Stephanie Mark, designer Erin Kleinberg, and photographer Jake Rosenberg. We’ll be seeing lots more of their work in the future.
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
Heather Robertson received the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement during the presentation of the 35th anniversary National Magazine Awards.
MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR—PRINT
Winner: Maisonneuve
A broad-minded, insatiable magazine that publishes investigative journalism, long-form essays and breathtaking artwork, Maisonneuve strives to support emerging talent and present the arts and ideas of Quebec to Anglophone Canada. 2011 saw the magazine publish several high-profile investigative pieces and photo essays, and it was rewarded with nine National Magazine Award nominations. Maisonneuve recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and over the past decade it has won 18 National Magazine Awards, including now two wins (2004 and 2011) for Magazine of the Year.
The other two finalists for Magazine of the Year—Print were Outdoor Canada and Sportsnet.
Visit www.magazine-awards.com to read more about this year’s winners. [List of Winners PDF]
35th anniversary National Magazine Awards are sponsored by:
