New York, NY (November 27, 2006)Effective for next years competition, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is introducing three new categories and modifications to existing categories for its National Magazine Awards, it was announced today by Marlene Kahan, Executive Director, ASME.
New categories include:
The Photo Portfolio/Photo Essay category has been divided into two separate categories: Photojournalism and Photo Portfolio. Photojournalism recognizes the informative photographic documentation of an event or subject in real-time, while Photo Portfolio honors creative photography and photo illustration (including portraiture).
Two online categories, Interactive Service and Interactive Feature, were added, expanding the online sector of the competition beyond the previously established General Excellence Online category. Interactive Service recognizes an outstanding service feature (offers practical advice or instruction) on the web; Interactive Feature recognizes an outstanding editorial web feature focusing on news, entertainment and other subjects that do not offer practical instruction. Both interactive categories honor a sites creative use of multimedia technology, user involvement, personalization and/or community tools.
To further recognize excellent online journalism, three categories that traditionally accepted articles appearing only in print magazines will now be open to articles published online: Essays; Columns and Commentary; and Reviews and Criticism.
The board of directors of ASME has made these changes in order to broaden opportunities for all magazines, said Kahan, and to recognize the growing role of digital in magazines.
About the National Magazine Awards
The National Magazine Awards honor magazines, whether in print or online, that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative editorial techniques, noteworthy journalistic enterprise and imaginative design. The Awards were established by ASME in 1966, and is sponsored by ASME in association with the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University.
