Variety Wins 26 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, With Journalist of the Year Prizes for Tim Gray, Jem Aswad

variety.com:

Terry Flores Variety won 26 National Art and Entertainment Journalism Awards, including entertainment publication for its 115th anniversary issue “Gamechangers” and two journalist of the year awards: senior vice president Tim Gray for print and deputy music editor Jem Aswad for online.The venerable entertainment publication received 98 nominations.The awards, presented by the Los Angeles Press Club for work created from July 2020 through June 2021, were handed out virtually Feb.

17 after an in-person event scheduled for Feb. 5 was canceled due to ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.Aswad picked up so many awards, presenters remarked on it throughout the event.

He ended up with six more awards in addition to his online journalist of the year award. He won two awards for his story “Inside the Dirty Business of Hit Songwriting,” and one each for “Jason Derulo Cracked TikTok’s Code and Resurrected His Career,” “Learning to Be OK With the Word ‘Vinyls,’” “These George Harrison Promotional Gnomes Are a New Peak in Record Company Swag,” and “Lights Out: Live Entertainment Business Struggles to Find a Way Forward Amid Pandemic” alongside executive editor Brent Lang and international editor Manori Ravindran.

Along with his print journalist of the year honor, Gray, who is in his 41st year at Variety, took home two other awards, one for his commentary “Oscar & Box Office: Once a Happy Couple, Now Living Apart” and the feature “Looking Back on the Legacy of ‘All in the Family.” In awarding Gray the print journalist award, the judges said: “Tim Gray holds the entertainment industry accountable when it comes to its record on civil rights and portrayals of the oppressed.