National Magazine Awards Foundation Announces The Winners of the 33rd Annual
National Magazine Awards

TORONTO, June 5 /CNW/ - Despite a year of magazine closings, restructuring and layoffs, the Canadian magazine industry had much to celebrate at the 33rd National Magazine Awards, held at the Carlu in Toronto. More than 750 guests attended the gala as The National Magazine Awards Foundation (NMAF) handed out Gold, Silver and Honourable Mention awards in 46 categories, out of a field of 390 nominations from 84 magazines from across the country. Debuting this year were six online categories, including Website of the Year and Best Visual Design. For a complete list of winners, visit the Foundation's website at www.magazine-awards.com.

Up Here, with "up here" referring to its home base of Yellowknife, won the coveted Magazine of the Year award, given to the magazine that most consistently engages, surprises and serves the needs of its readers. A four-member jury selected three finalists-the other two were Maisonneuve and Report on Business-for this prestigious award.

About the winning magazine, the judges noted: "Solid and accomplished, Up Here has real personality and shows a strong editorial hand. The degree of difficulty in finding the human and other resources to publish, print and distribute from the north only adds to the measure of the accomplishment here. It is distinctive, fresh and unpredictable with engaging and accessible content that crosses both disciplinary and geographical boundaries. Its commitment and passion are very evident-and contagious."

Several firsts occurred this year, as the NMAF kicked-off the evening with a VIP ceremony, during which its inaugural online awards were presented. The first-ever Website of the Year award-given to the website that most successfully fulfills its editorial mission, effectively serves its audience, maximizes use of the web and represents the highest journalistic standards-went to DogsinCanada.com. Other highlights included a tie in the Best Visual Design category, with the Quebec-based French websites lametropole.com and Urbania.ca both winning Gold.

Coming in with the most nominations at 33, The Walrus also left with the most awards, winning 9 Gold and 3 Silver. Toronto Life followed with 4 Gold and 3 Silver, while explore did equally well in both the Gold and Silver counts, earning 3 each. B.C.'s Malahat Review, meanwhile, swept the Poetry category, taking both the Gold and Silver awards. Below is a list of the top winners at the 33rd annual National Magazine Awards:

    
    Magazine                 Gold     Silver      HM       Total
    --------                 ----     ------      --       -----
    The Walrus                  9          3      21          33
    Toronto Life                4          3      19          26
    explore                     3          3      13          19
    Report on Business          2          3      16          21
    Swerve                      2          3       8          13
    Canadian Geographic         2          1       5           8
    L'actualité                 1          3      16          20
    enRoute                     1          1       8          10
    Maisonneuve                 1          1       8          10
    Cottage Life                1          1       7           9
    Canadian Business           1          0       8           9
    Maclean's                   0          1      26          27
    

Individual magazine awards included best Magazine Cover, with this year's Gold going to Report on Business (Dominic Macri, art director) and Silver to Prefix Photo (Underline Studio). The Gold for Best Single Issue was awarded to The Walrus (October 2009; John Macfarlane, editor; Brian Morgan, art director), while Toronto Life (February 2009; Sarah Fulford, editor; Jessica Rose, art director) received the Silver.

Taking top honours in the special categories were Danielle Groen, named Best New Magazine Writer for her article "This Is Your Brain on Love" in Chatelaine, and Byron Eggenschwiler, named Best New Visual Creator, for his illustration of "Tales from Riverheights Terrace," which appeared in Swerve magazine.

Writer Chris Turner turned in the best individual performance this year, winning an impressive 2 Gold awards (both for articles that ran in The Walrus: "The Age of Breathing Underwater" and "An Inconvenient Talk"), as well as earning 4 Honourable Mentions.

The NMAF presented Terry Sellwood with its most prestigious individual prize, Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement. Sellwood, who is the chair of Magazines Canada and the general manager of Quarto Communications, was recognized for his exceptional contributions to the Canadian magazine industry, having worked with-or for-most of the country's major publishing companies since 1977. "No conversation about magazine publishing and its future is complete without Terry's name arising," noted Al Zikovitz, president of Quarto Communications, in his letter of support. For more information about Terry Sellwood and the Foundation Award, visit www.magazine-awards.com.

ABOUT THE 33RD ANNUAL NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS

The 33rd annual National Magazine Awards gala recognized excellence in Canadian magazine journalism for the year 2009. Nearly 2,000 individual entries from 177 magazines from across Canada were received, with 234 volunteer judges narrowing the field to 390 nominations and choosing gold and silver winners in 46 categories. For more information about the judging process and this year's juries, please visit www.magazine-awards.com.

The National Magazine Awards Foundation graciously acknowledges its sponsors, partners and donors who contributed to making this year's celebration a success. To find out more information about our generous sponsors and donors, please visit www.magazine-awards.com.

The submissions process for the 2010 National Magazine Awards will commence on December 1, 2010. For information about rules and eligibility, please visit www.magazine-awards.com.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS FOUNDATION

The National Magazine Awards Foundation (NMAF) is a bilingual, not-for-profit institution that promotes excellence in Canadian magazine journalism through its annual program of awards, relying on more than 200 volunteer judges to evaluate approximately 2,000 entries each year and award gold and silver winners. The NMAF recognizes the outstanding efforts of more written and visual artists than any comparable organization on the continent. The Foundation acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation and Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage for its program.

Through the NMAF's Award-winning Creators Profile, an initiative it started in 2009 to help promote and celebrate the achievements of award winners, recipients can create their own profiles on the NMA online winners archive. For more information, visit the Foundation's special site www.magazine-awards.com/winners.

For further information: about the National Magazine Awards, please contact: Julia De Laurentiis Johnson, Communications Manager, [phone], [email protected]