The Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME) announced their shortlist for the 2014 Editors Choice Awards.

The award celebrates magazines by editors, for editors and is an opportunity for them to be reviewed by their peers and receive feedback from judges.

This year, the judging criteria was revamped to change how each magazine would be evaluated, which CSME award co-director Jill Buchner said is only natural considering how much magazines have changed over the years.

“We surveyed magazine editors in the 2013 CSME Members' Survey to find some of the things they thought were most important to a great magazine,” she said. “In the end, we came up with five criteria: the front-of-book, the display writing, the ability of the magazine to entertain and engage, the writing and voice of the magazine, and the visual appeal and use of art integration.”

Buchner said judges are told to keep an editorial mandate of the magazines in mind during judging, so finalists are assessed on how well they are serving the needs of their readers and fulfilling their missions.

The Best Art Integration category will make its debut this year. 

“Though CSME is an organization for editors, good editors recognize the importance of collaborating well with art directors and considering design from an early stage in the process,” she said. “We wanted to highlight magazines and editors who are using art well to achieve their editorial goals.”

CSME’s 2014 Editors' Choice Award ceremony will take place on June 4, at the annual CSME Gala at MagNet.  Editor and journalist D.B. Scott will be the keynote speaker and tickets are on sale until May 29 at 2 pm.