Memo Pad: Add Your Name to the List... Digital Ellies, Round One...

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST: Who will be W magazine’s next editor in chief? It is the guessing game that has occupied Manhattan media circles since Wednesday, when news broke that W would move out of the Fairchild Fashion Group into Condé Nast and that Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director of Condé Nast, would tap a new editor for the title. It is believed the company will act quickly. Among the names most batted-about by insiders are Stefano Tonchi of The New York Times’ T magazine, as well as Carine Roitfeld, editor in chief of French Vogue; Katie Grand, who heads Condé Nast UK title Love; New York magazine’s Adam Moss, and Jay Fielden, former editor in chief of Men’s Vogue. Not surprisingly, perhaps, none of them were available for comment.

But a new editor in chief won’t be the only change at W — it also will move from its existing base of 750 Third Avenue. Sources say its new offices most likely will be at 1166 Avenue of the Americas, where digital properties such as Style.com, Epicurious.com and Brides.com are housed.

— Nick Axelrod


PUTTING THEM IN THEIR PLACE?: While the National Magazine Awards will be held later next month with a gala at Alice Tully Hall, the ceremony to celebrate the Digital Ellies were relegated to a lunchtime event at the Sheraton with rubber chicken. But it was the first-ever event devoted solely to digital media and New York and National Geographic led the results, with two awards each. National Geographic won the photography, digital media award and in the community category, which honors the use of proprietary content, interactive technology and social media. New York accepted awards for general excellence, digital media and for multimedia feature or package, which specifically related to its New York Fashion Week coverage. “Only a few years ago, this event would have seemed ludicrous,” said the title’s editor in chief, Adam Moss, while accepting the general excellence award. “It still seems a little ludicrous.”

Other Ellies went to Epicurious.com, which won for mobile media; billboard.com took the prize for design, digital media, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, for news reporting. Sports Illustrated won in the regular department or section category; Foreign Policy took the prize for blogging; Men’s Health was awarded for interactive tool, Tablet magazine won for podcasting, and Yale Environment 360 for video.

Michael Kinsley, founding editor of Slate, was inducted into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame by longtime friend Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Kingsley talked about his long career in magazine journalism, recalling that the day after winning the ASME for general excellence at Harper’s magazine, he was promptly fired. In a related comment, he later noted the goal in publishing is to achieve profitability. “I’ve only experienced that rarely, but I hear it’s really nice,” he said.

— Amy Wicks