The National Media Awards Foundation‘s most prestigious individual prize since its inception in 1990 is the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, an award that recognizes an individual’s innovation and creativity through contributions to the magazine industry. The award is open to circulation experts, editors, marketing, sales and promotion professionals, publishers, creators, designers, production managers—in short, to everyone in the industry. It cannot be given posthumously.
The NMAF is delighted to announce a unique occurrence in the presentation of the 2023 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, as two exceptional recipients are honoured: Jennifer Varkonyi, publisher of Maisonneuve, and Jean-Paul Gagné, publisher emeritus of Les Affaires. This unparalleled decision is due to the Outstanding Achievement Award’s postponement in 2021 and 2022, amid pandemic-related restrictions on in-person events.


Previous Outstanding Achievement Award Winners
- 2020 Don Gillmor
- 2018 Linda Spalding
- 2017 Joyce Byrne
- 2016 Penny Caldwell
- 2015 Kim Pittaway
- 2014 Michael Fox
- 2013 Kim Jernigan
- 2012 Stephen Trumper
- 2011 Heather Robertson
- 2010 D.B. Scott
- 2009 Terry Sellwood
- 2008 Cynthia Brouse
- 2007 Charles Oberdorf
- 2006 Neville Gilfoy
- 2005 John Macfarlane
- 2004 Paul Jones
- 2003 Stephen Osborne
- 2002 Sally Armstrong
- 2001 Al Zikovitz
- 2000 Ken Rodmell
- 1999 Peter C. Newman
- 1998 Lynn Cunningham
- 1997 Robert Fulford
- 1996 James Ireland
- 1995 Catherine Keachie
- 1994 Jean Paré
- 1993 Don Obe
- 1992 Barbara Moon
- 1991 Lloyd Hodgkinson
- 1990 Michael de Pencier
- 1989 Prue Hemelrijk