Do magazine awards still matter?

Given everything that magazine editors have to worry about these days, from staunching newsstand losses to launching brand extensions to helping hawk ads, how much do awards still matter? That was Glamour editor Cindi Leive's first question to a panel of editors Wednesday at an American Society of Magazine Editors luncheon on winning National Magazine Awards. When expense budgets are tight, perhaps awards matter less. Submissions for the past year's so-called Ellies were off 13 percent. In such an environment, "I do think [awards] give you a partial, limited immunity for a while," quipped John Rasmus, editor of National Geographic Adventure, whose award-winning magazine recently cut its frequency from 10 to eight times a year. Panelists also mulled judges' perceived bias in favor of big, well-financed titles and against women's magazines. Peggy Northrop, global editor of Reader's Digest, wondered why female judges are "especially critical" of women's titles, while admitting she used to take them less seriously herself. This year, with ASME's introduction of several new digital awards categories, women's magazines could level the playing field. That is, if they can scrape together the submission fees.

—Posted by Lucia Moses