Ellies ’08

Since September 1, Google has been tracking the top campaign-related queries and posted some telling results. While the top three political personas aren’t out of the ordinary — Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and John McCain, in that order — Tina Fey came in fourth, one spot ahead of Obama running mate Joe Biden. (Chuck Norris held down the sixth spot. Of course he did.)

In an election where one VP candidate has drawn the majority of the media coverage and the other has stayed under the radar, it’s not surprising Biden ranks below Fey — whose turn as a certain Alaskan Governor has significantly raise her profile.

The searches for top political news sources from the past three months were also interesting. Drudge Report was No. 1, followed by the Huffington Post, despite the latter’s higher traffic.

After the jump, lists of top political personas, topics and news sources. Good reading on this all important election day.

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VQR‘s Ted Genoways, Runner’s World‘s David Willey and Mother Jones‘ Clara Jeffery

We’ve pretty much killed this whole Ellies coverage thing, but in the spirit of “if some is good, more is better” (also our open bar policy), we wanted to finish up the day with some tidbits we couldn’t fit anywhere else. So, after the jump, we hear from award-winning editors and ASME officials about the state of the industry, the wonderful world of the Web and who’s hiring.

(We promise this will be our last Ellies post.*)

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A glance at the list of last night’s Ellies winners might lead one to assume that magazine folk are an athletic, adventurous bunch.

First Backpacker beat out New York magazine, followed by RunnersWorld.com trumping online heavyweights like Slate. com and NewYorker.com — editor-in-chief David Willey credited the site’s popularity to fact it’s a one stop shop for all things running. Of course the night’s big winner was that veteran purveyor of all things adventurous and foreign, National Geographic.

We’re tempted to say there may be some athletic voyeurism going on here, except to do so might suggest these magazines didn’t deserve their no doubt hard-earned kudos, and we’re sure they did. Just as we’re fairly sure the closest we’ll ever get to a marathon is bookmarking Runnersworld.com.

The Ellies ceremony clocked in at a very reasonable one hour and fifty-five minutes. As you may already know, National Geographic was the big winner taking home three awards and causing final presenter David Willey to remark that ASME might have to paint the Ellie yellow. Other highlights included:

• Padma Lakshmi informing the audience that fiction could engender “fire in the loins” (though, perhaps no longer the writers themselves).
• David Remnick accepting the award for General Excellence, 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 circulation saying he’d “almost forgotten how to do this.” (We love David Remnick, but even we had a hard time swallowing that).
• The very excited and worthy Print magazine, beating out the Georgia Review for General Excellence, Circulation Under 100, 000. Emily Gordon later told us that it made her happy to hear the presenter announce “the winner is Print,” because the night was really a celebration of print in general…it’s hard not to love Emily Gordon.
• Former Met, Lenny Dykstra, who followed New York Police Chief and presenter Ray Kelly, causing my seat-mate to query whether we could expect to see a cowboy next, thereby completing the tri-fecta of boy’s dream occupations.
• Matt Taibbi, arm anxiety notwithstanding.

Afterwards attendees were invited back to the reception room for champagne and dessert, which proved to be a whole lot of sugar for those of us who missed the protein heavy buffet on the way in. Nevertheless, there was chocolate fondue to be had, a cheese bar to be plundered and winners to congratulate.
More highlights and pictures after the jump.

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Smartest guy in the room or no, Wired EIC Chris Anderson‘s marshmallow issues have Julia Allison dismayed

Between our hand-numbing live blog and other Ellie-related reports, by now you know the basics — National Geographic and Vanity Fair the biggest winners, New York‘s non-sweep — from last night’s National Magazine Awards. So here’s an overview of the night, with more choice pics and gossipy bits to come throughout the day. Impressionistic shots and thoughts after the jump…

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As all of you following the FishbowlNY twitter feed can attest to, last night’s Ellies was a evening of bold names, new-ish faces and more than a few surprise winners.

National Geographic was the big winner of the night, taking home three awards. Backpacker magazine was the biggest surprise beating out Ellie heavyweight New York magazine. Possibly the most charming win of the night was Mother Jones, whose editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, visibly pregnant, began her speech by saying that this was “the second most exciting thing” to happen to her this year. Newbie Portfolio took home the award for “Magazine Section” after only a year on the stands and perhaps equally as surprising was the fact that Adam Moss and David Remnick each left with a single award (so much for our betting instincts!)

We’ll be posting round-ups throughout the day, but to begin here are a few snapshots from the very packed reception that preceded the ceremony.

(Note to self: free food + a room full of writers = long lines at the buffet…arrive earlier next year.)

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In a revolutionary move we only semi-regret, we live-blogged the 2008 National Magazine Awards using Twitter. To follow FishbowlNY’s ongoing Twitter reports, click here.

Elliepalooza. Start your engines. Time to get party-dressed!

[Rebecca] Struggling to get a cab!
[Glynnis] The one train to the Ellies. Class all the way.

Hoping the coat check’s not out of control.
Peeping Tina Brown — here now!
Adam Moss flitted by
Maer Roshan moving through the crowd
Will Anna Wintour show? Official word is maybe
Chasing Annie Leibowitz
Nat Ives (AdWeek), Irin Carmon and Stephanie Smith (WWD), Rachel Sklar and Danny Shea (HuffPo), Dylan Stableford and Jason Fell (Folio:), Jon Fine (BusinessWeek): the media on media gang’s all here

Padma Lakshmi=ravishing in champagne silk.

We have wireless connection. As the lady in the lav said, “It’s gonna be a long one.”

[Glynnis] Sitting on the mezzanine courtesy of Playboy. Good seats. Sharp seatmate.
[Rebecca] Seated with Noah in a box like on the Muppets.

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Keep your eyes tuned to the right hand side of this page for bite-sized, play-by-play details of all of tonight’s action: who’s wearing what, who’s eating what, who will close the bar this year and be the last to pick up their coat from the coat-check (ahem). Just like a live-blog except you can take us with you (we’re very presentable).
Also, find us here: http://twitter.com/FishbowlNY

This isn’t new news, but in light of the fact he’s nominated for an Ellie tonight we wanted to take the opportunity to point out that Hendrik Hertzberg has his own blog over at TheNewYorker.com.

As a rule we’ve found this to be a lovely development in so far as we don’t have to wait seven days for his “Talk of the Town” column. However, from time to time, it’s also been a rather painful development since we can no longer labor under the delusion that Hertzberg spends seven days in contemplative seclusion in order to compose his weekly gems. Apparently he’s just a genius. Also, he’s funny.

Alright fishies, time to place your bets on tonight’s Ellies — and by bets we mean online polls not involving financial transactions. The burning question this year (at least to our minds) is whether New York’s Adam Moss will be able to continue his dominance over former Ellies favorite the New Yorker, as lead by David Remnick. What say you ‘o wise FishbowlNY readers? Let us know after the jump.

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