ASME Cover Contest 2018 winners announced
Jonathan Dorn, the chief innovation officer of Active Interest Media and a member of the ASME board of directors, announced the winners at the annual American Magazine Media Conference at the Conrad Hotel in New York. David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, accepted the award for the Cover of the Year. Henry Goldblatt, editor-in-chief of EW, accepted the Readers’ Choice Award.
The ASME Best Cover Contest honours the most outstanding magazine covers of the previous year (2017). ASME members, including leading editors, art directors and photo editors, choose the best covers in 10 categories. The ASME board of directors then selects the best of those 10 covers as Cover of the Year. Selection criteria include the quality of the cover image, art direction and editorial copy as well as journalistic significance and newsstand strength.
Every cover entered in the contest is also posted on Facebook, where media consumers pick the winner of the Readers’ Choice Award by liking their favorite covers.
The 10 finalists for Cover of the Year included entries from seven publications: Bike, The California Sunday Magazine, GQ, Marie Claire, New York, The New Yorker and Sauce. The New Yorker alone placed four covers in the top 10. The top five finishers in the Readers’ Choice Award voting were Billboard, Concealed Carry, Entertainment Weekly, Living Bird and National Geographic.
ASME members also chose four finalists in each category. Among the notable multi-finalists were Time, two-time finalist in both the Best News and Politics and Most Controversial categories and finalist in the Brainiest category; ESPN The Magazine, two-time finalist in Best Sports and Fitness; Esquire, two-time finalist in Best Entertainment and Celebrity; and Texas Monthly, finalist in both Best News and Politics and Best Service and Lifestyle.
Other finalists were AFAR, Allure, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bon Appétit, The Chronicle Review, Condé Nast Traveler, EatingWell, Garden & Gun, GQ Style, Harper’s Bazaar, Harper’s Magazine, Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Local Palate, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Popular Science, Rachael Ray Every Day, Sports Illustrated, Surface, Surfer, TransWorld Motocross, TransWorld Skateboarding, Vanity Fair, Vice, Wired and WSJ Magazine.
Each category had its own Readers’ Choice winner. The winners were Allure in Best Fashion and Beauty; Concealed Carry in Best Service and Lifestyle; Entertainment Weekly in Best Entertainment and Celebrity; ESPN The Magazine in Best Sports and Fitness; Feast in Most Delicious; GQ in Most Controversial; National Geographic in Best News and Politics; Popular Science in Best Business and Technology; VICE in Best Travel and Adventure; and Whitefish Review in Brainiest.
“From Norman Rockwell illustrations on The Saturday Evening Post to Annie Leibovitz photographs on Vanity Fair, Americans have always relied on magazine covers to tell us where we are and where we’re going,” said Sid Holt, chief executive of ASME. “The entries in this year’s ASME Best Cover Contest continue in that tradition. There’s not a lot more that needs to be said. This year’s top covers—EW’s ‘Let’s Hear It for the Red, White and Ru’ and especially The New Yorker’s ‘Blowhard’—speak for themselves.”
The first ASME Best Cover Contest took place in 2006. Previous Cover of the Year winners include Rolling Stone’s “Obama” in 2009; Harper’s Bazaar’s “Twilight” in 2010; New York’s “City and the Storm” in 2013; Boston’s “We Will Finish the Race” in 2014; Vanity Fair’s “Call Me Caitlyn” in 2016; and Time’s “Total Meltdown” in 2017.
This year 128 magazines entered the contest, submitting 261 covers in 10 categories. More than 100 editors, art directors and photo editors judged the contest. Readers’ Choice voting began January 2 on Facebook and lasted four weeks; 2.3 million media consumers saw the contest on Facebook, and 80,000 voted.
To view the 2018 ASME Best Cover Contest gallery, visit asmebestcovercontset.org. To view previous winners and finalists, visit magazine.org/asmebestcovercontest.
ASME best cover contest 2018 finalists and winners
Cover of the Year
The New Yorker for “Blowhard,” August 28
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Best News and Politics
Winner: The New Yorker for “The March,” February 6
Finalists: Mother Jones for “Trump vs. the Law,” May/June; Texas Monthly for Hurricane Harvey cover, October; Time for “Nothing to See Here,” February 27-March 6; and Time for “Person of the Year [The Silence Breakers],” December 18
Readers’ Choice: National Geographic for “Gender Revolution,” January
Best Entertainment and Celebrity
Winner: New York for “David Letterman Returns,” March 6-19
Finalists: Esquire for Pharrell cover, February; Esquire for Adam Driver cover, December 2017/January 2018; TransWorld Skateboarding for Dylan Rieder cover, January; and Vanity Fair for Serena Williams cover, August
Readers’ Choice: Entertainment Weekly for “Let’s Hear It for the Red, White and Ru,” June 23
Best Business and Technology
Winner: The New Yorker for “Coding 101,” November 20
Finalists: Bloomberg Businessweek for “It’s Not Easy Being Mark Zuckerberg Right Now,” September 25; The California Sunday Magazine for “The Political Awakening of Silicon Valley,” October 1 gatefold cover; Landscape Architecture Magazine for “The Big Blow,” April; and Popular Science for “The State of Water in Our World,” March/April
Readers’ Choice: Popular Science for “The State of Water in Our World,” March/April
Best Service and Lifestyle
Winner: The California Sunday Magazine for “A Teenage Life,” December 1
Finalists: Garden & Gun for 10th-anniversary cover, April/May; The New Yorker for “Bright Star,” July 3; Surface for “Rossana Orlandi,” April; and Texas Monthly for “The 50 Best BBQ Joints,” June
Readers’ Choice: Concealed Carry for “Comfort & Style,” May/June
Best Sports and Fitness
Winner: GQ for LeBron James cover, November
Finalists: ESPN The Magazine for Corey Seager cover, April 10; ESPN The Magazine for Brent Burns and Joe Thornton cover, July 17; Sports Illustrated for “Super Bowl Miracle,” February 13; and TransWorld Motocross for Ken Roczen cover, November
Readers’ Choice: ESPN The Magazine for Kirstie Ennis cover, July 17
Best Fashion and Beauty
Winner: Marie Claire for Emma Stone cover, September
Finalists: Allure for “The Beauty of Diversity,” April; GQ Style for Brad Pitt split covers, Summer; Harper’s Bazaar for Kendall Jenner cover, May; and WSJ. Magazine for “Fall Fashion,” September
Readers’ Choice: Allure for “The Beauty of Diversity,” April
Best Travel and Adventure
Winner: Bike for “Open Season,” July
Finalists: AFAR for “The Dream Trips Issue,” July/August; Condé Nast Traveler for “30th Anniversary Issue,” September; Surfer for “The Great Wave,” October; and Vice for post-election road-trip issue, June
Readers’ Choice: Vice for post-election road-trip issue, June
Most Delicious
Winner: Sauce for “Poke All Day,” April
Finalists: Bon Appétit for “The Simple Issue,” August; EatingWell for “Gather & Feast,” November/December; The Local Palate for “The New ’Cue,” June/July; and Rachael Ray Every Day for “You Got This!,” November
Readers’ Choice: Feast for “Pizza & Beer,” October
Brainiest
Winner: The New Yorker for “Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley,” March 6
Finalists: The Chronicle Review for “You’re Wrong,” May 12; Harper’s Magazine for “Who Owns Black Pain?,” July; TIME for “Infrastructure,” April 10; and Wired for “What Lies Ahead,” February
Readers’ Choice: Whitefish Review for “Rising Voices,” Winter/Spring
Most Controversial
Winner: The New Yorker for “Blowhard,” August 28
Finalists: GQ for “Citizen of the Year [Colin Kaepernick],” December; Newsweek for “Pop Go the Weasels,” November 17; TIME for “White House-Red Square,” May 29; and TIME for “Hate in America” August 28
Readers’ Choice: GQ for “Citizen of the Year [Colin Kaepernick],” December
Readers’ Choice Award
Winner: Entertainment Weekly for “Let’s Hear It for the Red, White and Ru,” June 23
Finalists: Billboard for “Woman of the Year 2017 [Selena Gomez],” December 9; Concealed Carry for “Comfort & Style,” May/June; Living Bird for “Winter Issue,” gatefold cover; and National Geographic for “Gender Revolution,” January
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