Eligibility and Rules
Please read fully as
many of the rules have changed.
The 35th Annual National Magazine Awards competition is open to Canadian print or
digital publications and to Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents (landed immigrants) whose work has
appeared in them during the 2011 calendar year. A print or digital publication that enters the magazine
awards may not have also entered newspaper or other broadcast awards.
For this competition, the NMAF's guiding principle for magazine publishing is that the
publication, whether print or digital, must self describe as a magazine; be editorial in nature (that is, it
must have and submit a clear editorial mandate); be the product of an editorial process; and be published
regularly. Print Magazines must be published at least twice per year. A Digital
Magazine or Magazine Website must have been
launched before November 1, 2011. The NMAF reserves the right for its judges to decide whether a publication
qualifies as a magazine.
All submissions must satisfy the following rules:
- A Canadian magazine (print,digital or website) or magazine supplement is one at
least 51% Canadian owned and published in either English or French or a combination of
both.
- Original work which appears in the December 2011-January 2012 issue of a
bi-monthly magazine is eligible, but not that which appeared in a December 2010-January 2011 issue. A single
issue dated January or Winter 2012 (even if it appears on the newsstand in December 2011) is NOT eligible for
submission. Submissions from Digital Magazines and Magazine Websites must be original work that was
first published during the 2011 calendar year.
- INDIVIDUAL entries, written or visual, displaying advertorial and/or promotional
content will be ruled inadmissible.
- Print Magazines, Digital Magazines or Magazine Websites that contain significant
violations of the Canadian Magazine
Industry Advertising-Editorial Guidelines may be
considered ineligible for an award.
- Awards are intended for Canadian content creators and as such:
a.) Awards for illustrations are limited to Canadian illustrators and are open
only to work commissioned by the magazine.
b.) Awards for photography are limited to Canadian photographers. Note: Previously
published photos and/or stock photography will be ruled inadmissible except in the Integrated categories of
"Words & Pictures" and "Magazine Covers."
c.) Awards for art direction are open to Canadian art directors and their staff or
freelance associates.
d.) Awards for writing are open to Canadian staff or freelance
contributors.
e.) Awards for visual and integrated categories are open to Canadian editors, art
directors and freelance contributors
- Excerpts, serializations or condensations from books or books in progress are
inadmissible - except when the writer's/photographer's work originated as a print or digital publication
assignment and was primarily financed by the publication and edited as the publication’s own
copy.
- Work entered as Fiction is not eligible for entry in other
categories.
- Except where stated, there is no limit on the number of entries submitted per
category.
- Finalists will be proportionate to the number of entries submitted in a category
up to a maximum of ten finalists.
- No entries will be returned.
- All submissions must be accompanied by permission, not for sale or profit, to use
the entries of finalists in the Awards presentation program, exhibit and Web site, and to include any winning
entry in perpetuity in the Award Archive on the Foundation’s Web site. The Foundation reserves the right to
use the entries of finalists in the Awards presentation program/exhibit/digitally/Web site but not for sale
or profit.
- Entries that do not conform to the rules or fit category definitions may be
disqualified without notice. Entry fees for disqualified or withdrawn submissions will not be
refunded.
- The decision of the judges will be final.
* The categories Best Digital Design and Magazine of the Year (Digital) will be
judged live between mid-February and mid-March 2012. Digital publications must have been launched before
November 1, 2011 to be eligible.
