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.