The New Yorker won five National Magazine Awards yesterday, but that's hardly news: The New Yorker wins National Magazine Awards like the 1927 Yankees won baseball games. The real buzz out of the annual ceremony was that Martha Stewart, America's perkiest ex-convict, won two awards and showed up to get them despite being under house arrest.
"She is allowed out for 48 hours a week to do work, and this was a work-related moment," explained Stewart's spokeswoman, Samantha Schabel.
Martha Stewart Weddings took the award for general excellence for magazines with circulation between 250,000 and 500,000, and her Kids: Fun Stuff to Do Together won the award for design.
Two Washington-based magazines -- National Geographic and National Journal -- won the coveted awards, which are bestowed by the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
National Geographic won the essays award for David Quammen's cover story "Was Darwin Wrong?" Quammen answered that question with a resounding no, concluding that "the evidence for evolution is overwhelming." The judges, noting that many Americans don't believe the theory of evolution, called the story "courageous."
"It was the best-selling newsstand issue in the magazine's history," said National Geographic Editor in Chief Chris Johns, "and to have it further validated by our peers is thrilling."
The National Journal -- a political magazine with a circulation of only about 13,000, much of it among Washington pols, lobbyists and reporters -- won the columns and commentary award for columns by Jonathan Rauch, including one on same-sex marriage and one on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The judges called them "reasoned, heartfelt and persuasive even at their most contrarian."
"I'm flabbergasted, basically," Rauch said by phone after winning. "I write a low-key, serious column. . . . That New York and the magazine industry noticed was a shock."
The New Yorker, which has won more awards than any other magazine in the contest's 40-year history, added five more trophies to its collection, which now numbers 44 -- more than double its nearest rival, the Atlantic, which has won 19.
The New Yorker won the general excellence award for magazines with a circulation between 1 million and 2 million. It also won prizes for reporting, reviews, profile writing and public interest.
