IT was David vs. David at the National Magazine Awards yesterday, with Esquire Editor-in-Chief David Granger snagging four of the so-called Golden Elephant awards for editorial excellence.
Granger narrowly nosed out New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick, who snagged three.
The biggest drama of the day may have been the final award, which featured Martha Stewart Living, Time and Newsweek in the running for a general excellence prize in the 2 million-plus circulation category.
Mark Whitaker, Newsweek editor-in-chief, was magnanimous in winning. “Martha Stewart, if you’re still here, you’re a real sport for showing up,” he said. He also put in a little dig at arch rival Jim Kelly and his team at Time magazine. “You figure into this as well,” he said of Time. “I stay up nights figuring out ways to beat you.”
Later, when Whitaker saw the Esquire editor-in-chief, he quipped, “Hey, Granger, where’s your wheelbarrow?”
In his seven years at Esquire, Granger had won only twice before – once each in 2001 and in 1999. Yesterday the magazine scooped up four prizes: for profile writing, design, fiction and reviews and criticism.
The wins anoint Granger as the hottest editor in town, even if a general-excellence prize did elude him.
Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair chief who usually is jockeying for the honor, had no nominations this year and didn’t bother to show up.
Granger said he was wearing the first suit he had purchased when he became editor-in-chief of Esquire seven years ago.
Was it his lucky suit? “It never was before,” he said, but added, “A good suit never goes out of style.”
There were also a series of firsts. Gourmet Editor Ruth Reichl won for general excellence in the 500,000-to-1 million category – a first for the 63-year-old foodie. Publisher Giulio Capua said he is ordering up a few bottles of Gaja wine to celebrate, while Reichl was calling in an order to a gourmet cheese shop.
Popular Science won as well for the first time in its 133-year-old history, in general excellence.
That win spared Time Inc. an embarrassing shut-out at the annual awards, sponsored by the American Society of Magazine Editors. (It’s a good thing the company bought out Times Mirror Magazines a few years back, though, since none of its core Time Inc. titles won).
And Men’s Health, helmed by Editor-in-Chief David Zinczenko, became the first Rodale title ever to win an “Ellie,” as the awards are called – for a personal service piece on heart disease. Zinczenko headed to his customary watering hole at Elaine’s to celebrate.
City magazine was an upset winner in the photography category, beating out Vogue and Martha Stewart Living, among others.
Caroline Miller, the ousted editor-in-chief of New York magazine, was not on the scene, but Michael Wolff, the magazine’s former media critic, was there to accept a top prize for columns & commentaries. Wolff, who had tried unsuccessfully to buy the weekly magazine when it went on the block last fall, said, “The truth is, I might have preferred a different prize but this one is pretty good.”
He said the New York platform gave him a chance to “shake my fist at this rotten war” – one of several winners who sounded decisively anti-war themes.
Adam Moss joined Wolff on the dais but said he could take no credit for the award. Wolff has skipped to a $400,000-a- year job at Vanity Fair, and so was not sure where he would go to celebrate his win. “I’m kind of an orphan here,” he said.
Mark Smirnoff won for best single-topic issue for the Oxford American, a literary magazine that was once subsidized by John Grisham but has since folded.
David Remnick said he was particularly delighted that crusading journalist Seymour Hersh was one of the winning entries in the public interest category for a series on “selective intelligence” that the Bush administration used to justify the war.
“He’s a lone wolf – a reporting powerhouse,” said Remnick.
The New Yorker also won for feature writing for a piece by Katharine Boo and for one by “Seabiscuit” author Laura Hillenbrand on her devastating battle with chronic fatigue syndrome.