This year, NEWSWEEK is the only news magazine to be nominated for general excellence among publications of more than 1 million circulation. For the 1996 award, which will be announced in late April, we entered three issues that, we feel, capture best the spirit and essence of what we do every week. The first, Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995, demonstrated our ability to pull together a chaotic breaking story and-in less than four days-produce a 36-page package that was shocking, illuminating and comprehensive. In Meet the Beatles (Again), NEWSWEEK combined exclusive reporting and access with the sort of lively and knowing writing that distinguishes our cultural sections. In Why He Got Out: The Inside Story, NEWSWEEK assembled its experienced political team to deconstruct the Gen. Colin Powell phenomenon and to provide the reader with the inside detail and dramatic narrative that make for gripping, instant history.
With the Olympics and the presidential election ahead, this year promises to make our weekly struggle to find, shape, winnow and display the most interesting and significant stories of the week even more exciting. To grace our coverage of the sporting scene, we welcome back one of the greats, Contributing Editor Frank Deford. His column on the controversy surrounding Denver Nuggets guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem appears on page 64.
