National Magazine Awards

The National Magazine Awards Foundation is a bilingual, not-for-profit institution whose mission is to recognize excellence in the content and creation of Canadian magazines through an annual program of awards.

Important Dates

Dec 1, 2009- Call for entries
Dec 11, 2009 - Co-Financing Deadline
Jan 15, 2010 - Submissions Deadline
May 1, 2010 - Nominations
June 4, 2010 - Awards Gala

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The National Magazine Awards
425 Adelaide St West, Suite 700
Toronto, ON, M5V 3C1
staff[at]magazine-awards[dot]com
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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement

The NMAF’s most prestigious individual prize since its inception in 1990 is The Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement, an award that recognizes an individual's innovation and creativity through contributions to the magazine industry.

The award is open to circulation experts, editors, marketing, sales and promotion professionals, publishers, designers, production managers - in short, to everyone in the industry. It cannot be given posthumously.

Nominations for this award are welcome from everyone in the industry. The nomination consists of a letter from the nominator indicating the candidate’s name, title and career achievements, with supporting letters from at least two (2) other individuals.

The Judging Committee of the National Magazine Awards Foundation will consider the nominations, along with nominations from members of the Committee itself. The Board of the National Magazine Awards Foundation will select the winner. No entry fee is required. 

The deadline for submissions for the 2009 Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement is March 1, 2010

Mail your applications to:
Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement
The National Magazine Awards Foundation
425 Adelaide St W, Suite 700, Toronto, ON, M5V 3C1

Or you may send applications by email - including PDFs of all supporting letters - to staff[at]magazine-awards[dot]com.

2008 Winner

This year the NMAF is honoured to name Cynthia Brouse as the recipient for her exceptional contributions to the Canadian magazine community.

Cynthia Brouse was first published in a Canadian magazine at the age of 15; she wrote a letter to the editor of Chatelaine’s feminism advice column in 1973 inquiring about how she could get involved in the movement. 

 

In so many ways, Brouse has been involved in our industry ever since.

 

Several years later, in 1980, Brouse formally began her Canadian magazine career as the assistant to the editor of Saturday Night

She went on to write, copy edit and fact check on staff for Canadian Business, Maclean’s and Toronto Life, returning to Saturday Night in 2002 as managing editor. 

A published freelance writer for years, she received her first two National Magazine Award nominations—and won Gold in the personal journalism category—in 2000 for a Toronto Life profile of actor/director/writer Paul Gross’s fans. She reprised her Gold success last year when she took the top award in the health and family service category for a beautiful portrait of a single woman struggling with cancer, “ Lessons from Adele” in Chatelaine.

Brouse has also taught and inspired students at Ryerson University and George Brown College for more than twenty years, instilling in countless pupils the principles of magazine journalism: be courageous, be honest and check the facts.

She should know—she wrote the definitive guidebook to fact checking, After the Fact. In addition to being gospel on the desk of every would-be writer and editor, the text implicitly celebrates and defends the virtues of Canadian magazine journalism. (Editor’s note: Yes, we used After the Fact to fact check this bio.) 

 

Brouse is also a former coordinator of the Magazine Publishing Certificate Program at Ryerson’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education; she spearheaded a revitalization of the program in the early 2000s. 

 

More than a dozen industry members sent letters to the NMAF to support the nomination of Cynthia Brouse, who now works as copy chief at Chatelaine. “Cynthia does what other dedicated magazine professionals have done for decades,” said Stephen Trumper, freelance editor and part-time Ryerson journalism instructor. “Maintain and set high professional standards for our industry.”
 

For being an outstanding example to all who’ve worked with her—and to the Canadian magazine industry—the NMAF proudly presents Cynthia Brouse with the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement.

 

What they've said about Cynthia Brouse:

“The tricks and techniques [Brouse] taught and her passion for the unsung art of checking are valuable tools I’ve kept with me to this day.” – Allan Britnell, freelance writer

“[Brouse] has been a tireless advocate…for truth and verification, for accuracy and detail, for getting it right. But she never loses sight of the fact that what we all love so dearly are great stories told well. Journalists such as Cynthia—great editors as well as quality writers—are rare.” – Bill Reynolds, magazine stream director, Ryerson School of Journalism

“Throughout two semesters, Cynthia became not only an exceptional mentor to classmates and me, but also an admirable, kind and generous person to be around.” – Christal Gardiola, head of research, Ryerson Review of Journalism: Spring 2009

“I can’t think of a more deserving person for this award because [Cynthia] is so wise, talented and generous.” – Tim Falconer, author of Drive: A Road Trip Through Our Complicated Affair with the Automobile and That Good Night: Ethicists, Euthanasia and End-of-Life Care

“Apart from her editing skills, Cynthia is a talented writer. Showing a deft hand with the personal memoir/journalism format, Cynthia has written moving accounts of growing up in a small town in northern Ontario, being a single woman in the 21st century and struggling with breast cancer….Cynthia is a highly skilled stylist, and her stories are full of warmth and humour.” – Bruce Gillespie, freelance writer and editor

“From knowing Cynthia for many years and reading her work, I know that of all the hats she wears in this industry—and she deeply cares about each of these areas—writing is her greatest passion….Cynthia is a fine, insightful reporter and observer of the world around her….Even when Cynthia writes a simple service article, she infuses it with classic Brousian character.” – David Hayes, freelance journalist

“Classes on grammar, usage and style are the stuff of many students’ nightmares, but Cynthia’s love affair with copy editing made them a joy.” – Carley Fortune, assistant editor, TorontoLife.com & Marco Ursi, editor, MastheadOnline

“While some turn expertise to tyranny, Cynthia remains reasonable and calm, even in the panic of production. If every magazine had a Cynthia, they would be truer, better written and more coherent.” – Megan Griffith-Greene, head of research, Chatelaine

“[Brouse has] been, over the years, an indispensable figure in the magazines of this era, a performer who richly deserves honouring for her diverse professional achievements.” – Robert Fulford, Toronto author, journalist, broadcaster and editor

“Not only is Cynthia one of those archetypal magaziners who populate the business and who are so absolutely imperative for its survival…, she is a genuine original: opinionated, funny and so unbelievably frank—like the best magazines.” – Matthew Church, director of marketing and communications, Evergreen

“Cynthia loves her students, and they love her. So do I. She’s the epitome of excellence in her field.” – Lynn Cunningham, assistant professor, Ryerson University School of Journalism

“At Toronto Life from 1996 to 1999 as chief of copy editing and research, [Brouse] helped establish and manage an internship program whose alumni can now be found running many of the country’s most successful magazines. For this alone, she deserves our recognition.” – John Macfarlane, editor and co-publisher, The Walrus

 

Previous Winners of the Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement

2007 Charles Oberdorf
2006 Neville Gilfoy
2005 John Macfarlane
2004 Paul Jones
2003 Stephen Osborne
2002 Sally Armstrong
2001 Al Zikovitz
2000 Ken Rodmell
1999 Peter C. Newman
1998 Lynn Cunningham
1997 Robert Fulford
1996 James Ireland
1995 Catherine Keachie
1994 Jean Paré
1993 Don Obe
1992 Barbara Moon
1991 Lloyd Hodgkinson
1990 Michael de Pencier
1989 Prue Hemelrijk