For the second year, WHO Magazine has won the 2014 Maggies Magazine Cover of the Year award.

Its ‘Sexiest People 2013’ cover won from a field of 60 outstanding shortlisted covers in a national online poll voted by the public. The cover features the celebrity judging panel from TV’s ratings-blitzing X Factor photographed together in a bed, an image that is sexy and provocative yet with a cheeky, humorous twist.

 

WHO was also winner in the Weeklies category, where it had two shortlisted entries.

The Maggies is an annual award initiated by iSUBSCRiBE to recognise and celebrate the best magazine covers of the previous year. 200 magazine covers were initially shortlisted by a panel of publishing industry luminaries. The vote was then opened to the general public over a five-week period. This year more than 75,000 people voted online at themaggies.com.au

Australian publishing legend, Ita Buttrose, who was Chairperson of the 2014 judging panel, said of the current year’s awards entries: “It was wonderful to see such creativity and so much diversity in the magazine covers we selected. I thought there were some brilliant covers in the running, in a year that presented a consistently high quality. On behalf of the industry, I congratulate the winner, and all the excellent shortlisted publications.”

Of WHO Magazine’s winning entry, Mary Ann Azer, executive director of the Magazine Publishers of Australia (MPA), and member of the judging panel says: “Behind WHO’s enduring popularity is a unique blend of quality, high impact art direction and its strong editorial integrity. This year’s winning cover caught our eye, and the attention of the voters, with a cheeky, fun, celebrity-packed concept that was executed brilliantly.”

“The bar was set extremely high this year with 60 exceptional shortlisted covers; it’s great to see the exceptional standard of work our industry is producing,” comments Hunter Drinan, iSUBSCRiBE managing director. “iSUBSCRiBE is proud of its involvement with The Maggies which demonstrates our commitment to supporting the Australian magazine publishing industry and assist its ongoing success and growth.”