Be International, Apply for Awards

Yes, I'm a committee member of the Online News Association's International committee. And yes, I'm shilling. Apply! Three days left to get in for the ONA's awards.

General Excellence in Online Journalism, non-English. At http://journalists.org/awards/archives/000510.php .

Ellies Observed

Disney execs Anne Sweeney and Rich Ross give Miley Cyrus a smooch for the pages of Portfolio magazine long before the Variety pictures come out.


Liveblogged coverage of the Ellies, the National Magazine Awards, at Fishbowl and Folio.

Few quick observations from way in the back of the orchestra:

Prompter-vision. Three actors from “30 Rock,” who presented the award for Leisure Interests, opted not to read the joke on the teleprompter taking off on the Miley Cyrus photo imbroglio, instead ad-libbing on about Tom Cruise. “She’s only 15,” one of them said to me later, conjecturing that Cruise was better because Cruise would be on Oprah on Friday. Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi went off her prompter script to talk about “fire in the loins,” likening it to magazine editing. Lenny Dykstra, former Met and Philly, reads slowly from the prompter and gets big laughs. (Good coverage of lawsuit involving Dykstra and Doubledown, publisher of his new magazine for pro athletes, from Jeff Bercovici.)

Engage me: American Society of Magazine Editors Executive Director talked about how magazines have “endured in their ability to engage” audiences for many years. It’s all about engagement, advertisers, hear that. Outgoing ASME president Cindi Leive says magazines gave us the “first developed form of journalism three centuries ago.” Second person in a row to talk about magazines and centuries.

Other than that, the usual bejeweled, be-gowned and be-tuxed crowd, nibbling everything from lobster tail cocktails in a martini glass to pretzels and pineapples drenched in chocolate from flowing chocolate fountains.

Mirror Awards Lite

Sports, speeches, events, they should all come in an edited, easy to view version as this one is by MPA's Howard Polskin of the Mirror Awards ceremony in New York last month.

90 minutes awards ceremony boiled down to 4. No muss, no fuss, no chicken or salmon.

Mirror Award Finalists Announced

First ever media Mirror awards for media about media. mediabistro.com's up for one (yes, I submitted it), as are names you'd expect: Auletta, Carr, Kurtz, Andersen. No Wolff, though.

Here's the release:

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

S.I. NEWHOUSE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Wendy S. Loughlin

Monday, May 21, 2007 Phone: (315) 443-2785

wsloughl@syr.edu

Finalists announced in Mirror Awards competition

Awards honoring excellence in media industry reporting to be presented June 14

Twenty-three finalists have been announced in seven categories in the first ever Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting. The competition drew 140 entries. The media’s top writers, readers and leaders will gather June 14 at 11:45 a.m. at W New York (541 Lexington Ave., New York City) to fete the winners.

Finalists include:

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Best Single Article

• “Al Jazeera’s Global Mission,” Linda Tischler, Fast Company
• “Blogs to Riches,” Clive Thompson, New York Magazine
• “The Day the News Left Town,” Katherine Seelye, The New York Times
• “Google’s China Problem (And China’s Google Problem),” Clive Thompson, The New York Times Magazine
• “Dividing Lines: Why Book Industry Sees the World Split Still by Race,” Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal

Best Commentary

• “The Imperial City,” Kurt Andersen, New York Magazine
• “The Media Equation,” David Carr, The New York Times
• “Media Misfires,” Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post

—more—

Mirror Awards Finalists—2

Best Coverage of Breaking Industry News

• “Why Journalists Risk Their Lives to Cover Iraq,” John M. Higgins and Allison Romano, Broadcasting & Cable
• “Critics Question Reporter’s Airing of Personal Views,” David Folkenflik, National Public Radio
• “A Local Newspaper Endures a Story Backlash,” Dean Miller, Neiman Reports

Best Profile

• “Life With Brian,” Rachel Smolkin, American Journalism Review
• “Mad as Hell: Lou Dobbs’s Populist Crusade,” Ken Auletta, The New Yorker
• “A Guy Named Craig,” Philip Weiss, New York Magazine

Best Subject-Related Series

• “Among the Audience: A Survey of New Media,” Andreas Kluth, The Economist
• “Mixing, Matching and Multi-Media,” Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher
• “Viacom Coverage,” Brooks Barnes and Matthew Karnitschnig, The Wall Street Journal

EDITORS OR TEAMS OF WRITERS

Excellence in Media Information Services

• Benton’s Communication-related Headlines, Benton Foundation
• Mediabistro.com
• HealthNewsReview.org, University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communications

Overall Excellence

• Three issues of American Journalism Review
• “Reliable Sources - Turning a Critical Lens on the Media 2006,” CNN
• “America’s Investigative Reports,” Thirteen/WNET New York

The Mirror Awards, established by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, are the first of their kind. Meredith Vieira, co-anchor of NBC’s morning news program “Today,” will serve as MC of the awards luncheon. Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of Variety, will receive the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.

Luncheon committee co-chairs for the event include Rob Light, partner, Creative Artists; Judy McGrath, chairman and CEO, MTV Networks; Ron Meyer, president and COO, Universal Studios; Aaron Sorkin, writer; and Jeff Zucker, president and CEO, NBC Universal.

—more—

Mirror Awards Finalists—3

For more information about the Mirror Awards or to reserve a table at the June 14 luncheon, see mirrorawards.syr.edu or contact Catherine Gay Communications at (212) 501-7231 or mirror@cgcomgroup.com.

For press information, contact Wendy Loughlin at (315) 443-2785 or wsloughl@syr.edu.