The Meaning Is in the Eye of the Beholder

How do you measure the quality of a magazine?

When it comes to editorial merit, the National Magazine Awards serve as a convenient yardstick. The awards are handed out annually by the American Society of Magazine Editors, a jury of top editors and art directors whose decisions go a long way to proclaim what’s hot and what’s not.

In the awards to be given out next month for work published in 1995, the New Yorker leads with seven nominations in six categories, including feature writing and reporting. Tina Brown’s three years as editor of the magazine have produced an escalating number of nominations, starting with four in 1994, for pieces by one of the brightest collection of writers in print.

Harper’s Magazine, the literary and essay-driven monthly, generates far less gossip and media coverage than the New Yorker, but it, too, stands in the forefront of honored publications. Longtime Editor Lewis H. Lapham accepted three awards in 1994, received one in 1995 for his own writing in Harper’s, and his magazine is up for four awards this year.

GQ also has been on a nice roll. Editor in chief Arthur Cooper’s name had topped the masthead of the men’s magazine for 11 years before GQ won its first awards, winning two in 1995. GQ is nominated for four this year, including for general excellence, essays and criticism.

But what do the awards mean to the magazines? Depends on whom you talk to.

“There is a definite correlation between the awards and circulation gains,” Cooper says. He credits GQ’s six nominations and two awards last spring with helping the magazine to post a big jump in subscriptions and a 7.6% increase in circulation during the second half of the year (compared to the same period in 1994). The advances enabled GQ, which has led Esquire in advertising revenue, to surpass its rival in circulation as well--709,000 to 699,000.

“GQ’s greatest problem was a perception problem--many people thought of it only as a fashion and lifestyle magazine,” Cooper adds. “They had to buy it and read it to see that there was great writing and journalism inside. I think the awards last year for travel pieces by Alan Richman and Tom Junod’s profile of an abortionist prompted a lot of people to discover there was much more to the magazine.”

At Harper’s, Lapham says he believes that the National Magazine Awards give a winning publication “a sort of visibility and a certain amount of excitement. I think it also helps a magazine to attract writers. It certainly makes people aware of a magazine within the world of the media. To people in the business, an award gives luster to a magazine.”

Luster may be sufficient reward for many on the receiving end, but it does not necessarily trickle to the bottom line. Despite its awards, Harper’s total number of ad pages dropped sharply in 1995 and its ad revenue declined an estimated 6.8%, to nearly $3.2 million. Circulation held steady at 216,000.

GQ’s 1995 ad revenues rose only 1.7%, to $50.3 million, while award-less Esquire was up 11.9%, to $32.6 million. Lapham suggested that financial benefits from the awards may accrue only over time.

“The awards may offer some minor advantage in advertising sales,” says Martin S. Walker, chairman of Walker Communications, a magazine consultant, “but in my opinion their main value is in the form of peer recognition.”

Other magazines receiving multiple nominations this year include National Geographic, SmartMoney and the new Saveur, a handsome food magazine, which had three apiece. Sports Illustrated for Kids, Business Week, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Vibe and Wired received two nominations each.

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On the Racks: Bruce Springsteen has written the introduction to an updated edition of “Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,” in which author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson document poverty and homelessness. “As we tuck our children into bed at night, this is an America many of us fail to see, but it is part of the country we live in, an increasing part,” writes Springsteen, who says he picked up the book one sleepless night and it inspired him to compose two of the songs, “Youngstown” and “The New Timer,” that appear on his latest album, “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” Out of print for a decade, “Journey to Nowhere” is newly reissued by Hyperion in a $17.95 trade paperback. . . .

Food & Wine, which features Parisian restaurants, Alsatian vintages and low-fat Chinese dishes in the April issue, also turns its discriminating palate to the leading fast food specialties. In a page-length report card, Burger King’s basic burger earned the highest grade (B) from the magazine. Earning good marks in the fries (A-) and milkshakes (B) was McDonald’s. The report card offers blunt assessments, such as “too greasy, too gooey, too small” to describe White Castle’s burgers (C-), along with calorie counts and fat totals for each item. Useful reading.

* Paul D. Colford’s column is published Thursdays.