By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

It was the battle of the near-namesakes last night at the National Magazine Awards ceremony and the result was a rout. New York magazine, nominated for seven awards, won five. The New Yorker, the winningest magazine in the contest's 42-year history, was nominated for nine awards and came away with zero.

Among magazines not named for the city that never sleeps, the big winner was the Washington-based National Geographic, which won two awards -- one for photography, the other for general excellence among magazines in the over-2 million circulation category.

Foreign Policy, another Washington-based mag, won the general excellence award for magazines with a circulation between 100,000 and 250,000. Four years ago, Foreign Policy won the same award for mags with a circulation of under 100,00o, which indicates that its circulation is rising while its excellence endures.

"Foreign Policy deftly wrestles today's dilemmas onto the page with confidence, originality and style," the judges wrote.

Christopher Hitchens -- the Washington-based pundit, polemicist and world-class dinner party commando -- won the commentary award for his controversial columns in Vanity Fair. Hitchens, who once wrote a column mocking journalism awards, was praised by the judges of these journalism awards for his "incisive eloquence and expansive intellect."

Vanity Fair also the public interest award for William Langeswiesche's article on the killing of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha.

But the evening's big winner was New York, the ur-city mag, which has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years under the editorship of Adam Moss. New York won the awards for design, profile writing, interactive features, general excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation), and the magazine section award for "The Strategist," its weekly section of consumer tips.

"New York revels in the diversity, sexiness and intensity of the city it covers," the judges raved. "It is nothing less than the redefinition of the city magazine."

Other winners of the coveted general excellence awards were Rolling Stone (in the 1 million to 2 million circulation category), Wired (500,000 to 1 million) and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (under 100,000). Beliefnet.com took the prize for general excellence online.

Esquire, which had seven nominations in five categories, won the reporting award for "The School," by C. J. Chivers, a long, cinematic account of Chechen terrorists' bloody takeover of a school in Beslan, Russia.

O, the Oprah Magazine, won the leisure interests award for an ode to the joys of reading. Glamour won the personal service award for Liz Welch's account of the health risks of breast implant surgery. GQ won the feature writing award for "The Other Side of Hate," Andrew Corsello's account of a white farmer and a black priest caught in Zimbabwe's downward spiral.

The Paris Review won the photojournalism award for Jonas Bendiksen's photos of life in a Nairobi slum. City magazine won the photo portfolio award for its fashion photography. The Nation won the criticism award for movie reviews by Stuart Klawans. The Georgia Review took the prize for essays. McSweeney's won the award for fiction. And Departures won the single-topic issue award for an issue on South America.

"Departures gift wraps a continent and delivers it as the best present a discerning traveler could ever want," the judges wrote. Then, in a rare burst of sheer animal exuberance, they added this: "Ay, caramba!"

As for the losers, the New Yorker was not the only frequent prize-winner to come away empty-handed. The folks from Time, Newsweek, the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's also donned their black-tie finery, schlepped to New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center building and went home with nothing but a bellyful of cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.

Ay, caramba, indeed.