Time Is Magazine of the Year at National Magazine Awards

Four Titles Win Their First General Excellence Awards

Time was named magazine of the year at the annual National Magazine Awards on Thursday night, taking home a prize introduced in 2010 to honor brands that excel across both print and digital.

Vice magazine, which had celebrated its first nomination for a National Magazine Award with a press release (jokingly?) thanking the industry for "realizing we do it better than you," lost to Bloomberg Businessweek for general excellence among general-interest magazines.

It was Businessweek's first win for general excellence since Bloomberg acquired the title in 2009.

Four magazines won their first-ever general excellence awards, which were the top prizes before the magazine of the year category was created: O, The Oprah Magazine, for general excellence among women's magazines; Inc., for active- and special-interest magazines; House Beautiful, for lifestyle magazines; and IEEE Spectrum, for thought-leader magazines.

New York, always a safe bet at the National Magazine Awards, took home more prizes than any other title with three, for essays and criticism, magazine section and single-topic issue, for an issue marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with an "Encyclopedia of 9/11."

The New Yorker, the other reliable winner, received two awards, one in the public-interest category and one for reporting.

The National Magazine Awards, presented every year by the American Society of Magazine Editors in association with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, are known as the Ellies for the Alexander Calder elephant sculptures that serve as trophies. ("There are lawnmowers with less sharp edges than these," host Brian Williams said.)

Three columns by Christopher Hitchens, who died in December from complications of cancer, earned Vanity Fair the Ellie award for columns and commentary.

"I know I will not see someone like him for a long time," said Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, as he accepted the award.

Terry McDonell, editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group, received the Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame award. "Being an editor right now is the most interesting time to be an editor because of all the possibilities," he said.

"The challenge," he added, "is basically: Change or go home."