The February/March 2013 edition of Dish, which features a gourmet hamburger, thick-cut chips and a beer, has beaten stiff competition to win The Maggies: Magazine Cover of the Year award for 2013.
Initiated by online subscription company isubscribe.co.nz in 2010, The Maggies award has previously been won by NZ House & Garden, Good and Curl, making Dish the first food-related magazine to win the award.
In a release, Lisa Morton, Dish’s associate publisher, said, “A burger is in some ways an unexpected subject for a Dish cover – some would perceive it as too casual to be worthy of a cover – but it was very ‘of the moment’ in the world of food trends, where there has been a renewed interest in celebrating and reinventing everyday food.”
The award comes at a good time for Dish. Nielsen’s statistics, released in October, revealed that the magazine had record highs in terms of readership. Up from 144,000 to 169,000, Dish was one of a handful of magazines to enjoy readership growth from last year.
The Maggies award was open to any magazine published between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2013, but the onus was on the magazine to lodge its own an entry. After all the entries were collated, they were handed over to a panel of judges, which consisted of Leonie Barlow, journalist and editor at The Style Insider; Andrew Burge, CEO and founder of iSUBSCRiBE; TV presenter Jude Dobson; Herald columnist Rachel Glucina; Magazine Publishers Association commercial director Katrina Horton and Fashion Quarterly and Simply You founder Paula Ryan.
The judges chose the five best covers, and this shortlist was then presented to the public, who after 20,000 votes determined that Dish cover was the best.
In response to the result, Dobson said, “The NZ foodie within has voted and the resulting winner looks colourful, delicious and inviting to open.”
In addition to winning the prestigious award for the best cover, Dish also won the Food and Wine category at the Maggies.
List of category winners
Best Magazine Cover of the Year & Food and Wine Winner – Dish (Feb/Mar 2013)
Business & Trade Winner – Architecture NZ (Nov/Dec 2012)
Lifestyle Winner – MiNDFOOD (March 2013)
Specialist Winner – DPhoto 51 (Dec/Jan 2013)
Sports Winner – Adventure Magazine (June 2013 education issue)
