The Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors teamed up this year to honor the magazine industry's tried-and-true leaders with one black-tie event for both the Henry Johnson Fisher and Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame awards. MPA director of events Deidre Pannazzo planned the three-hour fete at the Waldorf=Astoria, where decor and entertainment played a subtle backdrop to the night's publishing powerhouse attendees, including Martha Stewart, Gruner & Jahr president and CEO Dan Brewster, and Conde Nast president and CEO Steve Florio.
V.I.P. guests and past award recipients mingled in the Palm Room during the cocktail hour, while the rest of the more than 700 guests crowded into the Starlight Roof. Then, guests were herded downstairs via express elevators to the hotel's grand ballroom for dinner. Hank Lane Music and Productions performed in the back of the room, and Floralia covered tables with burgundy tuxedo-striped linens and placed roses, seeded eucalyptus and pittosporum floral arrangements in square glass vases.
A quick three-course dinner and short speeches by this year's recipients—Edward Lewis, chairman and CEO of Essence Communications Partners, got the Fisher award, while GQ editor in chief Art Cooper was inducted into the hall of fame—was followed by a long, aggravating process for guests to retrieve their coats. (The problem: the numbered order of hangers got shuffled when the coats were moved from the ground floor coat check to a makeshift one set up in the ballroom's foyer.) Former Cosmopolitan editor in chief (and hall of fame member) Helen Gurley Brown even retrieved her own coat when the staff couldn't find it.
The winners partied with their entourages after dinner—Cooper went to the hotel's presidential suite while Lewis took over the penthouse.
—Jill Musguire
Read about last year's event...
V.I.P. guests and past award recipients mingled in the Palm Room during the cocktail hour, while the rest of the more than 700 guests crowded into the Starlight Roof. Then, guests were herded downstairs via express elevators to the hotel's grand ballroom for dinner. Hank Lane Music and Productions performed in the back of the room, and Floralia covered tables with burgundy tuxedo-striped linens and placed roses, seeded eucalyptus and pittosporum floral arrangements in square glass vases.
A quick three-course dinner and short speeches by this year's recipients—Edward Lewis, chairman and CEO of Essence Communications Partners, got the Fisher award, while GQ editor in chief Art Cooper was inducted into the hall of fame—was followed by a long, aggravating process for guests to retrieve their coats. (The problem: the numbered order of hangers got shuffled when the coats were moved from the ground floor coat check to a makeshift one set up in the ballroom's foyer.) Former Cosmopolitan editor in chief (and hall of fame member) Helen Gurley Brown even retrieved her own coat when the staff couldn't find it.
The winners partied with their entourages after dinner—Cooper went to the hotel's presidential suite while Lewis took over the penthouse.
—Jill Musguire
Read about last year's event...
The more than 700 guests at the Magazine Publishers of America's Henry Johnson Fisher and American Society of Magazine Editors' Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame awards mingled in the Waldorf=Astoria's Starlight Roof during the cocktail hour.
Floralia covered tables with burgundy tuxedo-striped linens and placed roses, seeded eucalyptus and pittosporum floral arrangements in square glass vases.
Former Cosmopolitan editor in chief Helen Gurley Brown retrieved her own coat at a makeshift coat check when the staff couldn't find it.
Award presenters and recipients lined up with MPA and ASME leaders after the ceremony: Dan Brewster, MPA chairman; Congresswoman Maxine Waters; Edward Lewis, Henry Johnson Fisher award recipient; Nina Link, MPA President and CEO; Art Cooper, Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame inductee; Susan Ungaro, ASME president; and Marlene Kahan, ASME executive director.
