The American Society of Magazine Editors announced nominations for their annual National Magazine Awards last week, and for the first time included a brand new category: Magazine of the year. The official press release from the Magazine Publishers of America, defines the new award as, "honor(ing) publications that successfully use both print and digital media in fulfilling the editorial mission of the magazine." Let's take a look at the first time honorees: The Atlantic; Fast Company; Glamour; Men’s Health; and New York. (more...)

T: The New York Times Style Magazine staffers Horacio Silva and Andy Port caused quite a social media stir with their Golden Globes coverage. Silva, who tweeted real-time coverage via T's Twitter account @TheMoment, bashed Dexter star Michael C. Hall's dark-colored beanie. The tweet: "Is Michael C. Hall playing Bob Marley in an upcoming movie? Don’t get the hat or what he is hiding under it. HS” Unfortunately, unbeknownst to to Silva, Hall wore to cover hair loss as a result of a recent treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Gawker, Perez Hilton and WWD quickly jumped on Silva's back, but to be fair, he quickly apologized when he realized the snafu: “It was a question I posed entirely without malice...I know from the effect it had on my family, how devastating cancer can be and it’s not something that I take lightly. I apologize for any hurt that I may have caused.” NY Times staffer Andy Port, however, straight up called people fat.  In a slanderous post on T's The Moment blog, she opened with "Maybe it’s just me, but I could have sworn that some of the ladies who showed up at the Golden Globes on Sunday had put on a little weight." No names were named, but pictures of Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson and Courtney Cox accompanied the post. "You could definitely see the difference if you concentrated solely on the upper arms," quipped Port. What is this: the New York Times or high school? Maybe Ms. Port should check out Glamour's plus-sized models to realize that "womanly" is in.

First lady Michelle Obama is one of five Glamour cover stars for this year's 'Woman of the Year' issue. Mrs. Obama was interviewed by Katie Couric for the piece (and photographed with all her interns, what's not to love about that!). Couric asked Obama what dating advice she would give to a young professional woman today, which is reasonable question on a number of levels one being that this is Glamour, another being, who doesn't hope their family life in some way resembles the first couples. Anyway, here's what she had to say: (more...)

Now would be a good time for the folks at Condé Nast to make a brave and convincing foray into the online world, right? And so they have — well, it's brave at least — with the launch of a new dating site trulymadlydating.com. (more...)

Continuing to attract the spotlight after the sensation the "girl on page 194" caused, Glamour magazine's Fashion Week launch of its new ad campaign is bright, cheerful, and optimistic. The New York Times calls the cupcake themed ads an attempt to reach out to media buyers and heighten their ad sales by "refresh their idea of the Glamour reader."

It seems more accurate to say though, that the ads reinforce more than a refreshed image of the Glamour reader. The magazine's 70 year run has always had a focus on the "average," albeit exceptional, "all-American girl." Out of those 70 years, the magazine has been holding an annual Top 10 College Women competition for 52. The contest attests to the ardent level of appreciation the beauty mag has always had for intelligent women, who are recognized for their "campus leadership, scholastic achievement, community involvement and unique, inspiring goals," and not their waist size.

The 10 winners, whose colleges ranged from University of Iowa to USC to West Point, were honored at a fancy awards luncheon at The Modern last week, where Ivanka Trump and Editor-In-Chief Cindi Leive spoke. Besides the ceremony, the girls are glorified in a detailed 5 page spread in the October issue.

Glamour has been dedicating this much space to real, exceptional women every year for half a century, which suggests that its new ad campaign isn't refreshing its readers' image, but rather maintaining its tradition of accessibility. The sprinkling of the cupcake ads around New York may add some refreshing color to the city, but Glamour's continued success and high readership has always been rooted in their their long-established tradition of providing an attainable space for the voices of real young women.

POLL On the cover of Glamour's October issue, Gwen Stefani is positively in your face. Feeling her pink fuzzy grip, we've pulled some of Gwen's best cover work from the last five years — there can be only one best Gwen Stefani cover! (more...)

In The September Issue, Vogue's Anna Wintour is referred to as the Pope for her autonomy and infallibility. And though the film documents a time at Vogue before the peak of the recession and subsequent ad sales avalanche, Forbes concurs that Wintour's power and influence may still be at an all-time high, ranking her first among "2009's Most Powerful Fashion Magazine Editors." But more interesting than the number one spot are the multimedia moves Wintour and her fellow editors made to retain relevance as print magazines continue their economic free-fall, not to mention Forbes' overlap with our own Power Grid rankings. (more...)

In the realm of women's magazine, readers have grown accustomed to page after page of faultless models airbrushed to oblivion -- unblemished and rail thin, with nary an extra hair, crease or pound. So imagine the shock when ladies thumbing through the September issue of Glamour happened upon page 194 and saw model Lizzi Miller, in all of her size 12-14 glory. (more...)

According to prim and brazen New York Times Stlye columnist Guy Trebay, this summer's look is pretty much the same as last summer's, except for one addition: This summer, the people have spoken and pot bellies are in. "Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut," Trebay has named this summer's crop of trendy bellies 'Ralph Kramdens.' (I'm still holding my breath for an "On The Street," by the way.) (more...)

video A three-by-three photo on page 194 of the September issue of Glamour has made a plus-sized splash with readers. Could the amount of positive feedback be a sign of things to come? Or is Glamour's plus-sized roll-out just a play to afford normal readers a sense of comfort in the world of flat bellies and diet tips? (more...)

Cindi Leive is the editor-in-chief of Glamour, Conde Nast's 2.35-million circ juggernaut with a balance sheet as healthy as a cover girl's flowing mane. Under Leive, the magazine has enjoyed tremendous success and critical acclaim, racking up over 170 journalism awards, including numerous "General Excellence" nominations at the National Magazine Awards (it won in 2005, rare for a women's magazine in this appallingly patriarchal society. Oops, how did that get in there?). She is the past president of ASME, and an always-champion of women, as evidenced by Glamour's support of charities like the Somaly Mam foundation and, more generally, the Glamour Women of the Year Awards which honor incredible women - with incredible stories - every year. Those stories are often found in the pages of Glamour - as reliably as fashion, beauty and sex advice - and push the ball forward on matters of women's health, global trafficking and violence, and politics (example: the great Glamocracy blog during the campaign). Mock Glamour at your peril: MarketWatch's Jon Friedman did, and got clocked with what he called "The Glamour Hammer"; Fareed Zakaria did, and got showed up by Glamour's correspondent who went on to put the screws to Hamid Karzai on women's rights in Afghanistan. We grill her with just as much intensity here in this edition of 5QQ - Five Quick Questions. (more...)

The September Issue of Australian Marie Claire hit newsstands this week with a very familiar image of Katie Holmes - the very same image that was used for the April issue of Glamour. This raises the question - is imitation the best form of flattery or a copyright infringement?

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The September Issue: it’s not just the title of the highly anticipated R.J Cutler documentary about Anna Wintour, it's also what every magazine-loving fashionista anxiously awaits. September enters our mailboxes like a warm Thanksgiving feast -- it's bicep-flexing heft comes packed with Chanel’s newest ads, Testino’s freshest fashion shoots, and Glenda B.’s most thoughtful Fall advice -- a welcome antidote to the malnourished August issue. And of course, there’s the cover: the ultimate seal of approval for the model who lands it. But this year? Not so much. (more...)

Women's fashion magazine covers typically fall somewhere between sexy and sophisticated. But finding a spot on that continuum for your cover girl is a little bit trickier when she is still counting the days until her 20th birthday. This month, women's fashion mags across the globe dipped into the young, supple crop of up-and-comers. Will putting tarted-up teens on the cover help attract younger readers? (Any readers at all?) Or will this month's covers just fall flat and lose their way? (more...)

Mail.com, the innocuously named website owned by Jay Penske -- age 30, son of auto racer and automotive executive Roger Penske -- has seemingly appeared out of nowhere and begun scooping up some big media names, two of which have landed New York Times profiles in the last 24 hours courtesy of David Carr. (more...)

On the cover of Glamour 44-year-old Sandra Bullock -- the eternal girl next door -- throws caution, age and hair to the wind. Inside she ‘busts up’ about the word ‘vagina’ with pal-slash-interviewer Anne Fletcher. (more...)