Weinstein stories dominate magazine awards
SEX scandals and the opioid crisis were on center stage at the National Magazine Awards on Tuesday.
To nobody’s surprise, Ronan Farrow’s three-part series on the alleged serial sex offenses committed by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein snagged the Public Service award for The New Yorker.
The weekly’s editor-in-chief, David Remnick, tipped his hat to the New York Times, since the paper’s investigative story on Weinstein’s secret payments to cover his sexual misdeeds appeared a week before the first Farrow piece.
Farrow’s stories included more serious allegations.
Competition made both publications’ stories better, said Remnick.
The New Yorker also won an award, known as an Ellie, for feature photography for “Faces of an Epidemic,” about the opioid crisis in Ohio — photographed by Philip Montgomery — and for General Excellence in News, Sports and Entertainment.
“It’s been a long afternoon — is Mike Pompeo still secretary of state?” quipped Remnick as he accepted his third Ellie of the day.
Remnick was referring to the preceremony announcement that Pompeo would replace the fired Rex Tillerson — and the Trump administration’s high-turnover rate.
Jim Nelson’s GQ won two Ellies, for feature writing for Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah’s “A Most American Terrorist: The Making of Dylann Roof,” and for Design.
Rounding out Condé’s magnificent seven was Self, which picked up an Ellie in Social Media, and W, which took home some hardware for photography.
Not to be outdone, New York, edited by Adam Moss, picked up three Ellies, including one for Comments & Commentary for three columns by Rebecca Traister that centered on gender, power and the Weinstein scandal.
“I always felt it was a little ridiculous for editors to accept these awards when it really is all about the writers,” said Moss. New York also won for nymag.com and for best magazine section, The Strategist.
In Time Inc.’s last appearance as a stand-alone company, its erstwhile flagship Time shared an award with Mic for video with “Life After Addiction.” Time Editor-in-Chief Ed Felsenthal took the bow.
The New York Times Magazine won for Reporting, and T the Times’ style magazine won for General Excellence for Service and Lifestyle.
Restaurateur Danny Meyer made an appearance to honor Dorothy Kalins, the founding editor of Metropolitan Home and Saveur, who was named to the Magazine Editors Hall of Fame.
In a dramatic snub, Meredith — now the world’s largest magazine publisher after gobbling up Time Inc. — was shut out by ASME.
Hearst, the other big publishing giant managed only one — to Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Michele Promaulayko in Personal Service for an article with six writers, “How to Run for Office.”
Observer woe
The mid-level editor who inadvertently got sucked into the story about how former Observer Editor Ken Kurson allegedly made inappropriate sexually charged comments to a freelance writer, said the freelancer’s allegations were not revealed to her.
Writer Deborah Copaken wrote for The Atlantic’s Web site “How to Lose Your Job From Sexual Harassment in 33 Easy Steps,” about how she lost her columnist job at the Observer and felt she was harassed by the theneditor Kurson.
Copaken claims she was doubly victimized because her complaints about Kurson were ignored.
“If she had told me all of the terrible stuff, I would have done something about it, as would have [Executive Editor] Merin Rogers,” Sarah Kennedy told Media Inkk on Tuesday.
Copaken claims she received a variety of inappropriate comments in the months she wrote for the paper. In November 2016, Kurson sent an e-mail asking “How come you never asked me out on a date?” She was so rattled, she said, she stopped writing for the Observer.
In May 2017, shortly after Kurson resigned, she sent an e-mail to Kennedy — the fashion & style editor — hoping that with Kurson gone, she could re- start a column for the publication. Copaken sent Kennedy, the only editor she knew at the Observer, a second e-mail, on Nov. 25, 2017, a year after she said she received Kurson’s “icky e-mail” — saying she wanted to file a formal complaint with HR. The e-mail went through without a bounce-back — but unfortunately, Kennedy had left the paper. “I resigned at noon on July 16, and I was cut off from e-mails,” Kennedy told Media Ink. Oddly, as late as this Tuesday, e-mails to Kennedy’s old Observer address were not getting bounced back. The company said it never received any of Copaken’s complaints. But Copaken said she has HubSpot and could see that the November 2017 e-mail to Kennedy — even after Kennedy was long gone — was being opened by someone still at the publication. “It was opened dozens of times,” Copaken told Media Ink. She also sent a third e-mail in December — asking for the proper party with whom to file a complaint. “It was ignored,” she said. Kurson declined to comment on the claims about his behavior. He complimented Copaken and wished her well.