Periodical Special Issues

General Observations

As our panel embarked on the challenging task of judging this year’s Periodical Special Issues category, we took careful heed of CASE’s instructions to judge each entry in regard to its own audience, objectives, and resources, and not necessarily in comparison with one another. But even within this framework, many of the 26 entries were ruled out of consideration for various reasons. In some cases, the qualities that supposedly made the issue “special” consisted of one or two features, or an extensive timeline, or photo essay; these simply did not match up to the thorough contemplation and presentation of themes exhibited by the finalists. In other cases, the themed content may have taken up larger portions of the issue, but their presentations were flat—series of personality profiles or news articles in which one piece looked or read all too much like the others. And in many cases of the non-finalist entries, the writing, design, or combination of both made the content difficult to access or enjoy, and thus were simply below the standard of award-winning work.

But even after culling out the non-finalist entries, we still had several that were worthy of recognition. We also had the rather unfortunate limitation of only being able to award three medals (per CASE rules, to 10 percent of the entries). Among those that we greatly admired but were unable to officially recognize were Notre Dame Magazine, which drew attention to the world—particularly Third World—health crisis and various responding initiatives. Johns Hopkins Public Health similarly reported, with noteworthy ambition and resourcefulness, on its researchers’ work in Africa. The Cornell Chronicle, an internal weekly tabloid, thoroughly covered and illustrated many facets surrounding the new president’s inauguration, and was to press and in readers’ hands by the very next day. Stanford Medicine took on the topic of evolution, from many angles, with much thought and sophistication. And the University of Alberta’s weekly internal tabloid, folio, covered at length and in interesting fashion the many ways the institution was impacting globalization, and vice versa.

But after some painful deliberation, three medal winners remained on the table.

Comments on Winning Entries

Grand Gold Medal

Harvard Medial Alumni Association,Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Spring 2006, “The Seven {Deadly} Sins”

• It wouldn’t have occurred to any of our panel that an issue about the seven deadly sins would naturally fit into a medical college’s alumni magazine, but the abstract that came with the Spring 2006 Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin made a strong case in the opening paragraph: “Doctors seem to love the seven deadly sins. Much of their work, after all, touches on the health implications of gluttony, sloth, and lust. Psychiatrists are always helping patients struggle with envy, pride, and wrath. And with health care costs spiraling out of the control, questions of physician greed are often in the news.” That thought-driven surprise alone was enough to get our attention. But what made this issue a hands-down favorite was the experience of reading the fine prose of seven Harvard medical alumni, who each reflected, via a poignant and/or humorous essay, on one of the seven deadlies and how they play out in the world of medicine. As one judge stated, “Once you read one essay, you just had to read the rest.” As a bonus, six more alumni then followed up with their own short nominations for an eighth deadly sin, particularly as they relate to doctors. Add to the experience a brilliantly playful two-color design approach and we had our pick for the total package and a Grand Gold Medal.

Gold Medals

Pomona College, Pomona College Magazine, Winter 2007, “Food for Thought”

• Among them, Pomona College Magazine’s “Food for Thought” issue presented a tasteful, full-course menu of stories about food and Pomonans who prepare it, engineer it, sell it (and sometimes fail at doing so), study it, suffer by it, and eat it. Employing a range of perspectives, editorial approaches, and engaging visual presentation, the editors invoked the theme on virtually every page of the feature and departmental wells, subtly peppering the contents with original recipes as well as essential college news unrelated to the theme. As with the other award winners (as well as some who did not receive a medal) Pomona served up much of the issue’s content in a fashion that would appeal to and even offer value for most any reader, inside or outside the Pomona community. Strangely enough, it was after discussing this entry that we had to break for lunch…

University of Portland, Portland Magazine, Summer 2006, “Wars”

• In the widely-reputed, highly regarded tradition of Portland, the Summer 2006 issue entitled “Wars” presented an experience related to its theme that was enlightening, angering, saddening, moving, surprising, and yes, even humorous in places. Articles included an essay on torture, accounts from an alumnus serving as an Army captain in Iraq, an interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, an essay about September 11 and war, memories of athletic battles, and pieces about a war priest and the war against illegal immigrants. Some plentiful and powerful reading, not to mention meaningful imagery, amid a 48-page issue that also included the magazine’s standard departments.