If they were giving out prizes for best ledes, the same issue of New York would be our top pick as well. Remember?

"The first time they had sex, during that initial exploration of unfamiliar flesh, John Ross uttered words to Ann Maloney that would sound to her like prophecy. 'You have the body of a young girl. You need a baby.'"

Chills!

Bloomberg Businessweek won the Business & Technology category for its last-minute Steve Jobs cover.  Two different Real Simple covers—both blown-up photographs of flowers—won the Health & Fitness and Women's Interest categories, while GQ's Mila Kunis with iced coffee cover won Men's Interest.

Many more accolades to come at tonight's Ellies.

(Ellie image from FastCompany.com)

The American Society of Magazine Editors' finalists for the National Magazine Awards just popped up in our inbox. No surprises here: New York and The New Yorker lead the pack with six nominations apiece, GQ trailed with five and Wired with four. It may excite you that the establishment finally recognized first time nominees The Fader and Vice. (Alternately, you may be furious those glorified marketing companies infiltrated it.) John Jeremiah Sullivan earned nominations for GQ (his David Foster Wallace piece) and The New York Times magazine (his stoned-at-Disneyland piece). But no need to choose sides! They're in different categories. He can win both. Chris Jones was robbed.

Full list below:

GENERAL EXCELLENCE, PRINT

General-Interest Magazines
Honors large-circulation weeklies, biweeklies and general-interest monthlies

Bloomberg Businessweek; GQ; New York; The New Yorker; Vice

Women’s Magazines
Honors women’s magazines, including health and fitness magazines and family-centric publications

Glamour; More; O, The Oprah Magazine; Real Simple; W

Lifestyle Magazines
Honors food, travel and shelter magazines as well as city and regional publications

Bon Appetit; Country Living; Garden & Gun; House Beautiful; Texas Monthly

Active- and Special-Interest Magazines
Honors magazines serving targeted audiences, including enthusiast titles

The Fader; Field & Stream; Inc.; Men’s Health; Popular Mechanics

Thought-Leader Magazines
Honors literary, scholarly and professional publications as well as small-circulation general-interest magazines

The American Scholar; Aperture; IEEE Spectrum; The New Republic; Virginia Quarterly Review

DESIGN
Bloomberg Businessweek; GQ; Interview; New York; Wired

PHOTOGRAPHY
GQ; Interview; National Geographic; Virginia Quarterly Review; Vogue

NEWS AND DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Harper’s Magazine for “Juvenile Injustice,” October
Harper’s Magazine for “Uncertain Exodus,” July
National Geographic for “Too Young to Wed,” June
The New York Times Magazine for “From Zero to 104,” September 4
TIME for “Birds of Hope,” January 17

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
National Geographic for “Taming the Wild,” March
The New York Times Magazine for “Touch of Evil,” December 11
TIME for “Portraits of Resilience,” September 19
Vogue for “Lady Be Good,” March
W for “Planet Tilda,” August

SINGLE-TOPIC ISSUE
Bloomberg Businessweek for “Steve Jobs,” October 10-16
ESPN The Magazine for “NFL Preview: The Vick Issue,” September 5
Garden & Gun for “Southern Food,” October/November
New York for “The Encyclopedia of 9/11,” September 5-12
Wired for “Underworld,” February

MAGAZINE SECTION
Bicycling for “Know/How”
Esquire for “Man at His Best”
New York for “Strategist”
Real Simple for “Food”
Wired for “Start”

PERSONAL SERVICE
Glamour for “The Secret That Kills Four Women a Day,” June
Good Housekeeping for “Fractured,” July
Real Simple for “Your Holiday-Spending Survival Guide,” November
Redbook for “Would You Get a ‘Mommy Tuck’?” April
San Francisco for “The New School of Fish,” February

LEISURE INTERESTS
New York for “The Urbanist’s Guide To . . . ,” April 25
Outdoor Life for “Sniper School,” March
Saveur for “Italian American,” December
Texas Monthly for “Home Plates,” April
Wired for “The Wired Travel Optimizer,” October

PUBLIC INTEREST
5280 Magazine for “Direct Fail,” December
Harper’s Magazine for “Tiny Little Laws,” February
Marie Claire for “The Big Business of Breast Cancer,” October
Men’s Health for “The Signature Wound,” November
The New Yorker for “The Invisible Army,” June 6

REPORTING

The Atlantic for “Our Man in Kandahar,” November
Los Angeles for “What Happened to Mitrice Richardson?” September
The New Yorker for “The Apostate,” February 14 & 21
The New Yorker for “Getting bin Laden,” August 8
Vanity Fair for “Echoes From a Distant Battlefield,” December

FEATURE WRITING
Esquire for “Heavenly Father!” October
GQ for “The Man Who Sailed His House,” October
The New York Times Magazine for “You Blow My Mind. Hey, Mickey!” June 12
The New Yorker for “A Murder Foretold,” April 4
Rolling Stone for “Arms and the Dudes,” March 31

PROFILE WRITING
D Magazine for “He Is Anonymous,” April
ESPN The Magazine for “Game of Her Life,” January 10
Men’s Journal for “The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See,” March
Rolling Stone for “Santiago’s Brain,” December 8
Sports Illustrated for “Dewayne Dedmon’s Leap of Faith,” November 14

ESSAYS AND CRITICISM
Esquire for “The Loading Dock Manifesto,” May
GQ for “Too Much Information,” May iPad Edition
New York for “Paper Tigers,” May 16
The New Yorker for “The Aquarium,” June 13 & 20
Slate for “The Stutterer: How He Makes His Voice Heard,” February 22

COLUMNS AND COMMENTARY

The Atlantic for columns by James Parker
Field & Stream for columns by Bill Heavey
Los Angeles for reviews by Steve Erickson
TIME for columns by Joel Stein
Vanity Fair for columns by Christopher Hitchens

FICTION

The Atlantic for “Scars,” Summer 2011
McSweeney’s Quarterly for “Ambition,” April
McSweeney’s Quarterly for “The Northeast Kingdom,” August
Virginia Quarterly Review for “La Moretta,” Fall
Zoetrope: All-Story for “The Hox River Window,” Fall

Congratulations, BookBeast! (image via moneyries.tumblr.com)

Today the American Society of Magazine Editors honored New York magazine's website as well as its general digital excellence. Congratulations, Adam Moss and Ben Williams; Ben Williams and Adam Moss. Wired picked up two as well, one for design, and one for reporting for digital media. Find out why Time, The New York Times Magazine, and Newsweek were awarded by reading the full list below.

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

General Excellence, Digital Media 
Honors the best magazines published on digital platforms

Ben Williams, Editorial Director, nymag.com
New York
Adam Moss, Editor-in-Chief

Website
Honors the best magazine websites

New York
Adam Moss, Editor-in-Chief
Ben Williams, Editorial Director, nymag.com

Tablet Edition
Honors magazine editions published on tablets and e-readers

National Geographic
Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marr, Creative Director
Melissa Wiley, E-Publishing Director

Design, Digital Media
Honors magazine websites, tablet and e-reader editions and utility apps for visual and functional excellence

Wired
Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief
Brandon Kavulla, Creative Director 
For “Underworld Issue,” February 2011, iPad App

Website Department
Honors a department, channel or microsite

The Daily Beast
Tina Brown, Editor-in-Chief Newsweek and The Daily Beast
For “Book Beast”

Utility App
Honors single-purpose apps distributed on mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones

TIME
Richard Stengel, Managing Editor
For “PopuList” iPad Apps

Personal Service, Digital Media
Honors service journalism on digital platforms

MensHealth.com
David Zinczenko, Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
William G. Phillips, Editor
For “The Skin Cancer Center,” by Adam Campbell, Executive Editor, and Amy Rushlow, Senior Editor

Reporting, Digital Media
Honors excellence in reporting for digital media

Wired
Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief
Noah Shachtman, Digital Editor
For “FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical,’” by Spencer Ackerman, Senior Writer

Commentary, Digital Media
Honors excellence in opinion journalism on digital platforms

The American Scholar
Robert Wilson, Editor
For “Zinsser on Friday,” by William Zinsser

Multimedia
Honors the use of interactivity and multimedia in the coverage of an event or subject

Foreign Policy
Susan B. Glasser, Editor-in-Chief
For “The Qaddafi Files: An FP Special Report”

Video
Honors the outstanding use of video by magazines

The New York Times Magazine
Hugo Lindgren, Editor-in-Chief
For “My Family’s Experiment in Extreme Schooling,” by Julie Dressner, Shayla Harris and Clifford J. Levy

In the past year, two large tenants relocated from buildings Mr. Cohen owns.

3 Park Avenue.

The moves came when the American Society of Mechanical Engineers reached a deal last summer to move nearly 100,000 square feet of offices from one of Mr. Cohen’s buildings, 3 Park Avenue, to the nearby office property 2 Park Avenue.

More recently, Guggenheim Partners, a large financial firm, signed a lease to take almost 190,000 square feet at 330 Madison Avenue, relocating from another of Mr. Cohen’s buildings: 135 East 57th Street.

In a recent conversation with The Commercial Observer, Mr. Cohen said that letting ASME slip away was a calculated bet on the market, explaining that the society will not vacate its space until 2014, when he expects the office market in the city to be stronger than it is today.

“I think as owners we have to be independent, you can’t just run and scramble to keep every tenant,” Mr. Cohen said. “In that case, I looked at the building and asked myself, am I really best suited incurring the cost of renewing that deal two years early when maybe the market will be a lot better in a year or so?”

In the case of Guggenheim, Mr. Cohen said he accepted that the company was no longer the right fit for the property.

“We really didn’t have the space nor the size floors for a mushrooming company like them,” Mr. Cohen said. “It comes to a point of efficiency and 135 East 57th Street is more of a boutique building suited for a smaller tenant.”

Mr. Cohen has made progress gearing up to face the leasing challenge. In 2010, he named a top Cushman & Wakefield leasing team led by the two former chief executives of the company, Bruce Mosler and Arthur Mirante, to head up leasing his sizeable Manhattan portfolio, which also includes 623 Fifth Avenue, 750 Lexington Avenue, 622 Third Avenue, 475 Park Avenue and 805 Third Avenue. In late 2010, the C&W group helped arranged one of the biggest leasing transactions that year, an over 200,000-square-foot deal at 805 Third Avenue taken by the media company Meredith.

At 475 Park Avenue, meanwhile, Mr. Cohen is in the process of a multimillion renovation of the property, including an overhaul of the tower’s lobby.

“We have space in one of the hottest markets,” Mr. Cohen said, referring to 475 Park Avenue’s location on the border between Midtown and Midtown South, which boasts the lowest vacancy rate of any office market in the country. “And we’re investing in that space.”

When 475 Park Avenue’s renovation is complete, Mr. Cohen said that the building would attract tenants over hot submarkets in Midtown South such as the Meatpacking District.

“What attracts people to a property is its convenience to where they live,” Mr. Cohen said, noting 475 Park Avenue’s proximity to Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. “Our buldings are in great locations with great transit. I think the people who want to go to places like the Meatpacking are the exception rather than the rule.”

Dgeiger@Observer.com

This year, editors are having their feelings hurt in advance.

On Monday, the American Society of Magazine Editors overhauled the way its biggest awards are judged, so that titles will compete on the basis of content and audience instead of by raw circulation numbers. "This is something that everybody always talks about, but nobody has ever done anything about," said Sid Holt, ASME's chief executive. Under the previous system, incongruent glossies like ESPN The Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens faced off in the same top category, on the premise that at least they had similar resources. Meanwhile, obvious rivals like Time and Newsweek were split up.

Now, the same number of general excellence awards will be handed out, but in six broad categories. "Magazines ought to be judged against their peers," Mr. Holt said. "Instead of apples and oranges, we'll get apples and apples—even if it's large apples versus small apples."

While the old system was disliked for its arbitrary matchups, there was something objective about grouping magazines by one simple measure. The Holt system has plenty of its own odd matchups—US Weekly and The Economist are now direct competitors—but more importantly, it has upset the way elite magazines think about themselves.

Take the new top category of news, sports and entertainment: of the 29 magazines listed, 19 of them competed in "lower" categories last year. That's a lot of newcomers. And then there are the 16 magazines no longer listed in the first tier. Thirteen of them are women's titles.

Where did they go? To the "fashion, service and lifestyle magazines" category, which ASME describes as honoring "women's magazines, including health and fitness magazines and family-centric publications." Meanwhile, the men's category, a.k.a. active lifestyles, honors "business, finance and technology."

Staffers at women's magazines groused to the Observer about the implication that the genre isn't serious. But others are glad that the likes of O and Parenting no longer have to compete against general interest magazines for recognition.

"I don't think it's a perfect fit," said People managing editor Larry Hackett, ASME's president. The intent, though, he said, is to give women's magazines a better shot at a gen ex award, and to have them compete between themselves. "The idea was to broaden the possible winners."

Glamour's Cindi Leive was ASME president from 2006 to 2008. "Look, as a woman editor, it's hard to sit in that room and not notice that some years there are barely any women editors on stage, or barely any editors of women's magazines on stage," she told the Observer. "If this changes that, it's probably a good thing." (Ms. Leive was speaking by cell phone on her way to the airport; at a conference for international Glamour editors in Paris, she will give a presentation on magazines and the iPad.)

Last year, Mr. Leive's Glamour won a new "magazine of the year" award, ASME's biggest; Glamour also won for general excellence in 2005, beating out The New Yorker. Now the monthly will compete against Vogue.

Publications have until Jan. 4 to appeal their classification. Mr. Holt said he expects several to do so. Will Wired's Chris Anderson chafe at landing in category three while Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, and even Spin bask in the light of category one? Will Texas Monthly itch to escape the "special interest" category five ghetto, with Guitar Aficionado and Time Out New York, to square off once more with New York or the new W?

"We all HATE the label," an editor at a major monthly wrote in an email to the Observer, about being in category three. Yes, the designation probably means more nominations and awards—great for the career. But it's not so great for the ego, if the wins come against lesser magazines. Instead of facing off against heavyweights like The New Yorker and New York, the competition in category three includes Wakeboarding Magazine. (Coming in the April 2011 issue: coverage of professional wakeboarder Rusty Malinoski, and a piece on "Babes Who Shred.")

"It's like being Boise State," the monthly editor wrote. "Yeah, we'll win a lot, but are we gonna feel awesome about beating Southwest Montana State?"

Martha Stewart Living takes an especially obvious hit, dropping from the top circulation tier to the new category four (food, travel and design); every other title in last year's top bracket either stayed put, or moved to categories two and three. MSL now competes against the likes of Garden and Gun, instead of National Geographic. A rep for the magazine said no editors were available for comment.

One outfit that may profit from the reshuffling is Time Inc., whose titles haven't won a general excellence Ellie in years. "There's been a lot of frustration at Time Inc. over the lack of an ASME in the building. So any change is a welcome change," said a source at the publishing house.

Mr. Hackett was named president of the organization in May. In early August, Mr. Holt asked a panel of editors from Redbook, Popular Science, GQ, Prevention, Yoga Journal and other titles to examine ASME's awards program from top to bottom, with a focus on rehabbing general excellence.

It was an idea that had been gestating for some time. "Literally every time I sat down and had lunch or breakfast or a drink—especially a drink—with anybody to talk about the National Magazine Awards, this is something that always came up," Mr. Holt said. The panel agreed. "I put together some rough new categories for the committee to take a look at, and everybody in the room said, 'Yeah, that's the way we ought to do it,'" Mr. Holt recalled. "I had this big fancy PowerPoint presentation on the general excellence category that I never got to give." Some 20 different configurations were considered, but certain laws were inviolate, such as putting GQ and Esquire in the same category, and The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. Mr. Holt said he was still putting the finishing touches on the names of each category the night before they were announced.

But despite all the changes, an Ellie—so named for the weird but beloved elephantine sculpture that winners get to heft during acceptance speeches—is still an Ellie.

"You should feel good about taking it home," Mr. Holt said.

 nsummers@observer.com | @nicksumm

Mr. Carey, president of Hearst's magazine division, said that he wasn't that surprised by the win. “I knew it had a good chance of winning because, for the last year or so, it’s been on the bulletin board of my 17-year-old daughter, who is a huge fan of Robert Pattinson,” he told the crowd.

The cover, which was shot by Mark Seliger, appeared on the December 2009 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Amazon customers cast votes to decide the winner. View a slideshow of all the contestants here.

Earlier: Back to School Night For the Hearst Empire; David Carey Drops Marie Claire and Raises a Glass

SLIDESHOW: SEE THE BEST COVERS OF 2010

But then, dropped at the bottom of the list without any fanfare, is a new category: "Best Vampire." Such is the obsession with bloodsuckers that a magazine contest cannot proceed without an entire category devoted to the creatures. There's a pretty thorough explanation for this addition over at Folio. Apparently this new category is "a nod to the numerous covers featuring characters from the increasingly popular vampire-themed movies and TV programs." Good to know!

And in case you were wondering, the list of issues vying for the "Best Vampire" award is not entirely dominated by Twilight. The "Halloween" issue of Martha Stewart Living is also in the running.

First there was People's Sandra Bullock adoption exclusive and then this week's country star coming-out cover story. And to top it all off, yesterday Mr. Hackett was elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

"It's an exciting, challenging time for the magazine industry," said Mr. Hackett in the release. "I look forward to working with the ASME board as an advocate for editorial excellence and independence."

Mr. Hackett takes over for Runner's World editor David Willey and is joined by seven newly elected board members:

Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired; James Bennet, Editor of The Atlantic; Harriette Cole, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Ebony; Ariel Foxman, Managing Editor of InStyle; Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic; Kaitlin Quistgaard, Editor-in-Chief of Yoga Journal; and Mimi Valdes, Editor-in-Chief of Kidult.com.

Here's the release:

New York, New York (May 4, 2010)-Larry Hackett, Managing Editor of People, was elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) at the annual meeting of the organization on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. Mr. Hackett succeeds David Willey, Editor-in-Chief of Runner's World, as president.

"It's an exciting, challenging time for the magazine industry, and I look forward to working with the ASME board as an advocate for editorial excellence and independence," said Mr. Hackett. "I also want to thank David Willey for his superb stewardship these past two years."

Peggy Northrop, VP and Global Editor-in-Chief of Reader's Digest, continues as vice-president of ASME. Lucy Danziger, Editor-in-Chief of Self, was elected secretary, and Rosemary Ellis, Editor-in-Chief of Good Housekeeping, was elected treasurer. ASME officers serve one-year terms and are eligible for reelection to a second term.

Seven new members were chosen for two-year terms on the ASME board: Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired; James Bennet, Editor of The Atlantic; Harriette Cole, Acting Editor-in-Chief of Ebony; Ariel Foxman, Managing Editor of InStyle; Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic; Kaitlin Quistgaard, Editor-in-Chief of Yoga Journal; and Mimi Valdes, Editor-in-Chief of Kidult.com.

The annual meeting also reelected James B. Meigs, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Mechanics, to his second term on the board and elected Mark Jannot, Editor-in Chief of Popular Science, who was appointed to the board earlier to fill a vacancy, to a full term. A complete list of board members can be seen on the ASME website.

Remnick, who prefaced his remarks by admitting his own style is based on "what doesn't itch," spoke about the "real" Wintour--Anna the artistic collaborator, the seeker and nurturer of talent and as an editor who is "extraordinarily generous" with her time. He also pointed out that Wintour had been name-dropped by Jay-Z, in "Empire State of Mind" ("Now you're in style, Anna Wintour gets cold, in Vogue with your skin out"), an honor Remnick has yet to receive. (However, there is some disagreement on the Web about the Wintour line in the song, with some maintaining the lyric is actually "in the winter gets cold, en vogue with your skin out.")