A Great Week at 5280

Last week was a great one at 5280. To be sure, the highlight was the announcement that 5280 is once again a finalist for a National Magazine Award, our industry’s version of the Pulitzer Prize. But we also got news that we’ve been nominated for five awards from the City and Regional Magazine Association, we threw a great party for Denver’s restaurant community, and still managed to ship another strong issue to the printer.

The National Magazine Award nod went to “Low on O2,” our in-depth look at the often-misunderstood effects of living at high altitude, which appeared in our October 2009 issue and was written by staffers Lindsey B. Koehler and Natasha Gardner. The web version hardly does justice to this smart, highly designed package, so I’ve posted a PDF of the actual article here.

“Low on O2” is a finalist in the Personal Service category, along with articles from Men’s Health, New York, Parents, and Wired. The winner will be announced April 22 at Lincoln Center in New York.

The nomination is our fourth in the last five years, an accomplishment bettered by only three other regional magazines — New York, Los Angeles and Texas Monthly — all of whom work in far larger markets. We were a finalist twice in 2005 for Maximillian Potter’s “Conduct Unbecoming” and “Private Stites Should Have Been Saved,” and again in 2008 for Mike Kessler’s “Out in the Cold.”

Earlier in the week, we learned that 5280 is a finalist for five City and Regional Magazine Association awards. This was especially gratifying because of the breadth of the categories we were nominated in:

• Writer of the Year: Robert Sanchez
• Photo Essay: “The Forgotten Plains,” by Jefferson Panis
• Reader Service: “Snow Business,” by Lindsey B. Koehler, Natasha Gardner, Patrick Doyle, Julie Dugdale, Geoff Van Dyke, Corey H. Jones
• E-Newsletter: “Table Talk,” by Amanda Faison
• Community Service Project: “Single in the City Event”

The CRMA winners will be announced June 7.

Recognition from your peers is always gratifying, but it’s especially so coming after a year when magazines (and businesses everywhere) struggled to adapt to new economic realities. I’m incredibly proud to work with a team that not only met these challenges head-on, but somehow managed to make 5280 even better than before.