In its first year of publication, Sportsnet magazine has been nominated as Canada’s magazine of the year for 2011.
The honour was announced Tuesday after a team of 228 judges reviewed nearly 2,000 submissions across 45 categories before narrowing down the field to 362 contenders from 81 publications. The magazine of the year award is the highest honour bestowed on any publication by the National Magazine Awards foundation each year.
For Sportsnet, the nomination was unique as the team of judges made their decision after reviewing the first six issues of the sports publication’s existence.
Says Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Steve Maich, being nominated with such a small body of work to draw from serves to validate the work being done by a very talented team:
“We’re extremely proud to be recognized by the judges of the National Magazine Awards Foundation. We launched this magazine just eight months ago, and our mission was to provide the kind of storytelling and imagery that Canadian sports fans can’t find anywhere else. We’re growing fast and our readers are telling us that they love the magazine. For our peers to recognize our hard work with this nomination is a huge honour.”
The bi-weekly publication has provided a Canadian voice on all the big stories of the past eight months; including traveling to the far reaches of the continent to cover the Yukon Quest, better known as the world’s toughest sled dog race. Maich and his editorial team have also mixed in specialty issues like the 28 Greatest Bad Guys in Sports … and Why We Love them and the popular Beauty in Sport issue, documenting the 30 Most Beautiful Athletes on the Planet.
“We really wanted the magazine to offer a blend of fast-paced, insightful items on the world of sports as well as deep long-form journalism that tackles complicated stories about the teams and icons that Canadians care most about,” Maich adds. “We’re please that readers and colleagues seem to feel like the magazine is living up to that promise.”
The National Magazine Awards, which are celebrating their 35th anniversary, will be handed out during a ceremony in Toronto on June 7, 2012.