The NYT reports that ASME is "adding 12 new categories [to the Magazine Awards] covering online media." But! Rather than present these awards at the already-interminable fancy magazine awards ceremony in May, they "will be handed out at a lunch during a March online magazine conference." At lunch!

In fact, that real magazine awards used to be a modest affair like that, before they started taking that "The Oscars of the Magazine Industry" thing too seriously and inviting random wack people like Jimmy Fallon to present awards (suck it, Jimmy Fallon). Now, the Ellies get to siphon the nerdy, unglamorous online media reporters such as ourselves off into a preliminary affair, saving the real awards ceremony for the Beautiful People. It's genius, really. But what do these categories even mean?

"The Huffington Post, if it defines itself as a magazine, we would accept the entry. If it defines itself as a newspaper, then of course it should enter the Pulitzers," he said.

Haha! But what if it defines itself as the most specialest Magazinemediainternet Thingamajig in the whole wide world? Will there be a special category for that? And what are we supposed to enter? I assume there will be several categories dedicated to fameball coverage? And make sure there's something for Julia Allison!

We're not really winning any awards. But we are going and eating a free lunch, so SCORE. The internet continues to suck the magazine industry dry, one way or another.

Corporate awards might seem silly, but for some entrepreneurs, they are among the few forms of recognition still within reach. And the Insider's Silicon Alley Awards, intended to "celebrate the resilience of New York's digital industry in the face of the global economic collapse," has its share of obsessives. One even wonders if the selection process has been tilted in favor of nominees with financial ties to the Insider.

Henry Blodget's publication yesterday released its final list of nominees. The nominees were selected by the Insider with input from an online poll.

As our tipster notes, the 25 finalists include Gilt Groupe, co-founded by the same team that started Silicon Alley Insider; Huffington Post, co-founded by Insider investor Ken Lerer; and Thrillist, started by Ken's son Ben Lerer.

It's hard to argue with, say, HuffPo's impact over the past year; it pioneered a particularly effective form of citizen journalism and grew both its traffic and profile by leaps and bounds. But, as with the other two nominees, its links to the Insider were not disclosed; maybe they should have been, as our tipster argues, if only to keep the awards above reproach.

Blodget, who says he "understand[s] the concern about disclosures," he since added a note to his nomination post outlining "every possible conflict I could think of." And while he conceded "there was definitely some subjectivity in the selection of the final nominees," he defended his process:

We explained up front that, while we would take the nominations and votes into account when picking the final 5 nominees, the votes would not determine our selections.

The reason we don't use straight votes in these things, by the way, is that we have learned from experience that they are too easy to game...

For what it's worth, we won't be involved in picking the winners [see explanation at bottom of this post].

For those still dissatisfied with the process, just remember: It's only an arbitrary prize. They're a dime a dozen. If you don't win SAI's, why not go for a Webby? They hand those out to practically anyone!

Among the inside crowd, the Webby Awards were always a joke, a masquerade where Internet fanboys and fangirls played dress-up and feigned the red-carpet rituals of Hollywood's real ceremonies. But somewhere along the way, the organizers figured out that this goofy charade could be milked for profit. And now that mainstream entertainers like Jimmy Fallon and Seth McFarlane are sweeping this year's awards, the parodic circle is complete.

The Webbys' survival was the product of one woman's relentless, no-talent ambition. Long before Julia Allison, Tiffany Shlain was using the Internet to make herself famous. After the magazine which had hired Shlain to produce the first awards folded, she kept the show going. The dotcom bomb almost did the Webbys in. After staging a ridiculous post-bubble extravaganza for more than 3,000 in 2001, the organizers cancelled the 2003 ceremonies, blaming SARS (rather than the reality of the group's strapped finances). (The retrospective clip jauntily skips from 2001 to 2005, when Al Gore accepted an award.)

Since then, Shlain has wandered off into an iffy film career, where she's unlikely to see the kind of red carpet she rolled out at the Webbys. And her heirs have converted the show into a purely capitalist endeavor. Andy Baio notes how the number of categories of awards has exploded since the Webbys' near-death experience. By charging as much as $275 per entry across 129 categories, the Webbys can milk the Internet's lust for self-promotion.

And what's obvious from the winners is that the people who are still hungry for the ever-meaningless recognition of a Webby award are the big-media players with marketing budgets to spend, and restless corporate overlords demanding some concrete proof that the websites they've funded are any good. Far easier to show off an award than to hit one's quarterly numbers. The Webbys seem to have no problem making theirs.

(Chart by Andy Baio)

Will Leitch - "rose to fame as the editor of Deadspin, the world's biggest independent sports blog"

Owen Thomas - "best known as the editor of Valleywag...infamous [!]"

Brian Lam - "man behind the curtain at one of the biggest blogs in the world—gadget site Gizmodo"

Our writers appear with other Internet notables and fameseekers: Matt Drudge, Seth Godin, Perez Hilton, Kevin Rose, etc.

Well, at least PC Magazine's, who included several GM titles in their Top 100 Blogs of 2007 list:

On Consumerist:

"This blog champions the consumer and mocks and/or shames the hell out of the companies that want to screw him or her out of a buck."

On sports blog Deadspin:

"Deadspin is a refreshing take on a sports news blog."

On to Defamer:

"...the perfect midday break for anyone the least bit interested in entertainment, celebrity, and all that swirls around it."

On Gizmodo:

"Beyond the scoops on the gadget news you crave, it's the personality and quirkiness of Gizmodo that keeps us coming back."

On travel guide Gridskipper:

"...this Gawker blog will turn you on to big-city destinations not found in Zagat's or Frommer's..."

On Kotaku:

"There are plenty of video-gaming blogs out there, but few are better than Kotaku."

On Lifehacker:

"Lifehacker is the ultimate do-it-yourself blog, with tips, tricks, and hacks on streamlining your workflow, getting organized, and being more productive."

On Valleywag:

"In the world of Web, you're no one until you've been ridiculed by Valleywag, Gawker Media's "tech gossip rag" for Silicon Valley."

And, lastly, on Wonkette:

"...the site's unique combination of gossip, politics, and smarmy commentary is a breath of dirty but interesting-smelling air."

Gawker Media titles represented 10% of the total list. Congrats all!

Our 100 Favorite Blogs [PC Mag]

• Ricochet Public Relations, which publicized MAYA's back-to-the-90s "fill a room with balls" stunt
• Thunder Factory, who made two senior hires in July, lost them by April, and still have the hiring headline on their site.
• Thomas PR, which issued a release about gaining a client.
• The unnamed super-connected flack, whose account brings LinkedIn's servers to their knees.
• S&S PR, who has the client-history memory span of an Ecstasy-ridden goldfish.

And a new contestant enters the ring: BLASTmedia knew that GUI-rich web analytics were right up Valleywag's alley, so they followed up their press release for client VisiStat with a quick "Any interest in learning more about VisiStat?" five days later. To add some passive to my aggressive, the whole press release (oh boy! dynamically captured visitor habits!) is after the jump.

Hi Nick. Any interest in learning more about VisiStat?

From: Margie Schaffner
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 3:23 PM
To: 'tips@valleywag.com'
Subject: New Silicon Valley-based company provides a better way to count clicks

Hi Nick—

When Stephen Oachs realized the need for GUI-rich Web analytics that could be easily understood by the masses, he set out to revolutionize the Web analytics marketplace. Frustrated by the complicated process of how web analytics was performed, Stephen Oachs developed VisiStat, Inc., a San Jose-based Web analytics firm focused on next generation analytics solutions.

Visistat, Inc. is an easy-to-use and understand Web analytics service. Originally an in-house solution for Pixelmation Internet Technologies, VisiStat is a Real-time Website hit counter that dynamically captures visitor habits, search engine keyword usage, geographical location, click path, and much more. VisiStat uses StatCasting, which provides users with the ability to monitor their Web analytic information in actual "live time," without the need to reload or refresh the browser window for updates. StatCasted™ reports are updated instantaneously as statistical data arrives; enabling entire reports to be completely in motion as updates are made to the users screen in a "better than real time" format.

I'd love to put you in touch with the entrepreneurs behind VisiStat. Any interest in learning more about VisiStat, Inc.?

Best,
Margie Schaffner
BLASTmedia