NEW YORK, NY (March 15, 2006)-Marlene Kahan, Executive Director, American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), today announced the slate of finalists for the 40th anniversary National Magazine Awards (known as ???The Ellies???), the magazine industry's highest honor.

Twenty-two finalists will receive the coveted ???Ellie??? (named after the Alexander Calder Stabile ???Elephant???) at an evening awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 9, at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, New York City.

Finalists were chosen by a panel of 215 judges from among the 1,643 entries submitted by 356 print and online publications.

The categories and finalists are:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE: This category recognizes overall excellence in magazines. The award honors the effectiveness with which writing, reporting, editing and design all come together to command readers' attention and fulfill the magazine's unique editorial mission.

Circulation under 100,000:

Aperture, The Believer, Legal Affairs, Ready Made, The Virginia Quarterly Review

Circulation of 100,000 to 250,000:

Chicago, Foreign Policy, Harper's Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Town & Country Travel

Circulation of 250,000 to 500,000:

The Atlantic Monthly, Backpacker, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, Technology Review

Circulation of 500,000 to 1,000,000:

Esquire, Everyday Food, House & Garden, Marie Claire, Runner's World, Wired

Circulation of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000:

ESPN The Magazine, Fortune, Martha Stewart Living, The New Yorker, Vogue

Circulation over 2,000,000:

Glamour, National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine, Prevention, Time

PERSONAL SERVICE: This category recognizes excellence in service journalism. The advice or instruction presented should help readers improve the quality of their personal lives.

Field & Stream, Men's Health, National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine, Self

LEISURE INTERESTS: This category recognizes excellent service journalism about leisure-time pursuits. The practical advice or instruction presented should help readers enjoy hobbies or other recreational interests.

Bicycling, Cond?© Nast Traveler, Golf, GQ, Men's Health

REPORTING: This category recognizes excellence in reporting. It honors the enterprise, exclusive reporting and intelligent analysis that a magazine exhibits in covering an event, a situation or a problem of contemporary interest and significance.

The Atlantic Monthly (two nominations), Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone

PUBLIC INTEREST: This category recognizes journalism that has the potential to affect national or local policy or lawmaking. It honors investigative reporting or groundbreaking analysis that sheds new light on an issue of public importance.

The Atlantic Monthly, Legal Affairs, Mother Jones, The New Yorker, Texas Monthly

FEATURE WRITING: This category recognizes excellence in feature writing. The award honors the stylishness and originality with which the author treats his or her subject.

The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Outside, The Oxford American

PROFILE WRITING: This category recognizes excellence in profile writing. The award honors the vividness and perceptiveness with which the writer brings his or her subject to life.

The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, GQ, Los Angeles Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone

ESSAYS: This category recognizes excellence in essay writing on topics ranging from the personal to the political. Whatever the subject, the award honors the author's eloquence, perspective, fresh thinking and unique voice.

Harper's Magazine (two nominations), Vanity Fair, The Virginia Quarterly Review (two nominations)

COLUMNS and COMMENTARY: This category recognizes excellence in short-form political, social, economic or humorous commentary. The award honors the eloquence, force of argument and succinctness with which the writer presents his or her views.

Field & Stream, Inc., The New Yorker, Scientific American, Vanity Fair

REVIEWS and CRITICISM: This category recognizes excellence in criticism of art, books, movies, television, theater, music, dance, food, dining, fashion, products and the like. The award honors the knowledge, persuasiveness and original voice that critics bring to their reviews.

The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Harper's Magazine, New York Magazine, The Virginia Quarterly Review

MAGAZINE SECTION: This category recognizes excellence of a regular department or editorial section of a magazine, either front- or back-of-book and composed of a variety of elements, both text and visual. The award honors the section's voice, originality, design and packaging.

Backpacker, Cond?© Nast Traveler, Entertainment Weekly, Men's Health, New York Magazine

SINGLE-TOPIC ISSUE: This category recognizes magazines that have devoted an issue to an in-depth examination of one topic. The award honors the ambition, comprehensiveness and imagination with which a magazine treats its subject.

National Geographic, The Oxford American, Saveur, Scientific American, Time

DESIGN: This category recognizes excellence in magazine design. The award honors the effectiveness of overall design, artwork, graphics and typography in enhancing a magazine's unique mission and personality.

Everyday Food, GQ, Kids: Fun Stuff to Do Together, Martha Stewart Living, New York Magazine, Nylon

PHOTOGRAPHY: This category recognizes excellence in magazine photography. The award honors the effectiveness of photography, photojournalism and photo illustration in enhancing a magazine's unique mission and personality.

Departures, Gourmet, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, Time, W

PHOTO PORTFOLIO/PHOTO ESSAY: This category recognizes a distinctive portfolio or photographic essay. The award honors either photos that express an idea or concept, or documentary photojournalism shot in real time.

Aperture, Field & Stream, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, W

FICTION: This category recognizes excellence in magazine fiction writing. The award honors the quality of a publication's literary selections.

The Atlantic Monthly, McSweeney's, The Virginia Quarterly Review (two nominations), Zoetrope: All-Story

GENERAL EXCELLENCE ONLINE: This category recognizes outstanding magazine Internet sites, as well as online-only magazines and weblogs that have a significant amount of original content. The award honors sites that reflect an outstanding level of interactivity, journalistic integrity, service and innovative visual presentation.

Beliefnet, CNET.com, Men.style.com, National Geographic Online, Newsweek.com

***An expanded finalist list (including issue dates, nominated articles and authors) can be found on the ASME website as of noon, March 15 at http://asme.magazine.org. Additional information is available on request.

About ASME: The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) is a non-profit professional organization for editors of print and online magazines edited, published and distributed in the U.S. Established in 1963, ASME currently has about 900 members nationwide. Among other things, ASME provides an opportunity for magazine editors to network with their peers. ASME works to preserve editorial independence and speaks out on public policy issues, particularly those pertaining to the First Amendment.

2. Min Online
2005 Best-and-Worst-Selling Covers
By Steve Cohn
03/15/06
http://www.minonline.com/mb_topstory.htm

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For Newsweek and Time, the death of Pope John Paul II was tops in 2005. Though the Pope's April 2 passing was not unexpected, the news happening on a Saturday deadline made it "fresh" for readers. Same circumstance with the June 4, 2004, death of President Reagan, which also sold well. ( U.S. News and World Report, which closes on Fridays, published specials for both.)

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