American Vogue wins magazine of the year

Anna Wintour still reigns as head of the glossies;

American Vogue, which she has edited since 1988, has been named magazine of the year, at the prestigious Ad Age awards.

Beating off competition from Vanity Fair and The Economist, it’s also a sign of hope for print publications suffering from flagging ad revenues; " Vogue increased its January-to-October ad pages more than 9% [running a total of 2,125 ad pages]...boosted its big newsstand component almost 13%, partly but not entirely on the strength of a great Lady Gaga cover in March," Ad Age said on Wednesday night.

Ad Age also praised Wintour's brainchild "Fashion's Night Out" which has focused on breathing life into flagging retailers by encouraging hordes of young fashion fans to shop.

"To be in Vogue means something," Wintour has said of her power to make a model or designer's career, or bestow industry acceptance on a celebrity (like Lady Gaga). "Not all of them become friends, but it's part of my job to get to know these people and try to understand who they are, what they are and what future they have."

Ad Age said of Vogue, although the judges could have been speaking of Wintour herself: "When you're this established and you grow anyway, you're doing more than a few things right. "S.I.Newhouse, Condé Nast's chairman and CEO told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he will never replace Wintour. "Never. I hope she's here 10 years from now, 20 years from now."