The Spectator wins the top gong at the 2013 BSME awards

Last night, The Spectator won the top gong from last night’s British Society of Magazine Editors awards. It’s a thrill for us here at 22 Old Queen Street – ours was the last of 24 awards and each of them showed the incredible vitality of the British magazine industry. To win the final gong, in such illustrious company, was a real honour.

Newspapers are having a horrid time of it, but magazines are holding up rather better – as was demonstrated by the quality and range of entries last night. The full Condé Nast stable was well-represented, as were the magazine supplements of the national newspapers. There were trade magazines galore, and new titles opening with plenty fresh ideas (Exhibit A being N, the in-flight magazine of Norwegian airlines).

It’s harder than ever to divide the magazine world into niches – now, in the digital era, everyone’s competing with everyone. Magazine compete with newspapers and broadcasters in the world of online news, comment and audio – as the shortlist showed. The Spectator produces podcasts are, in a way, competing with the BBC’s own version. When the BBC runs online features with a ‘sidebar of shame’, it’s directly competing with Mail Online. The evolution of the media now means it’s everyone vs everyone.

Take, for example, Rory Sutherland who writes our brilliant Wiki Man column. He was nominated for columnist of the year and up against Simon Kupar (from the superlative FT Magazine) and Giles Coren and Caitlin Moran from The Times. We were also up for Campaign of the Year, for the ‘NO’ campaign (conceived of by James Forsyth, the cover by Peter Robins). And the other contenders were Cosmopolitan’s campaign for breast cancer awareness, Which magazine’s campaign for consistent supermarket pricing (a bugbear of mine) and the triumphant campaign by The Grocer magazine which resulted in the return of Funny Feet Ice Cream.

The BSME awards are done in such a way that the editor’s name goes on each gong. They’re all decided by a panel, with the exception of the final one, the trophy I picked up last night – “Editor’s Editor of the Year.” It’s open to all kinds of magazines decided by a vote from other journalists, which makes it all the more of an honour to have won. Looking at the other names engraved, two former Spectator editors jump out: Boris Johnson and Alexander Chancellor. It’s now in the downstairs boardroom, near the gin. We’re delighted to welcome it back.

Here’s the full list of winners:-

2013 EDITORS’ EDITOR OF THE YEAR

Fraser Nelson –The Spectator, The Spectator (1828) Ltd

THE MARK BOXER AWARD

Nicola Jeal – The Saturday Times Magazine, News UK

INNOVATION / BRAND-BUILDING INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR

Emma Pritchard – Country Living, Hearst Magazines UK, for Start Your Dream Business

Highly Commended: Mandie Gower – Zest, Hearst Magazines UK, for the Zest Challenge