Geo takes magazine honors

NEW YORK -- National Geographic won three National Magazine Awards, including general excellence, the industry’s top honor, while Vanity Fair picked up two.

Other winners included GQ, Backpacker, Mother Jones and Print for general excellence in their respective circulation categories. The awards were presented Thursday by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Perennial champ the New Yorker, which like Vanity Fair is owned by Conde Nast Publications, also took home the general excellence award in its category, for 1 million to 2 million circulation. That brings the New Yorker’s cumulative total to 47 National Magazine Awards, far above its nearest competitor the Atlantic, which has received 20 over the years.

With its latest win in general excellence in the over-2 million circulation category, National Geographic now holds 18 of the awards, referred to as “Ellies” after the trophy modeled on the Alexander Calder mobile “Elephant” that winners receive.

In addition to general excellence, National Geographic won for reporting, with an article on China’s entrepreneurial frenzy, and for photojournalism, with a group of pictures depicting the impact of malaria around the world.

Vanity Fair won for a 23,000-word profile of Pat Dollard, a failed Hollywood agent who became a documentary filmmaker and, eventually, a “hero of the pro-war right,” according to the award citation. Vanity Fair also won in the photo portfolio category with a spread in its annual Hollywood issue that was shot by star photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Newcomer Conde Nast Portfolio, a glossy business title, won for best magazine section with “Brief,” its regular feature on drama, conflict and other narratives in the business world.