Local magazine garners national honors

Friday, May 18, 2001 | 8:46 a.m.

Las Vegas Life magazine recently stepped up to the plate for the first time and hit two home runs, receiving recognition for excellence from two national organizations.

"It was the first time we entered any competition," said Phil Hagen, managing editor of the 3 1/2-year-old monthly publication.

Earlier this month Las Vegas Life received three awards from the City and Regional Magazine Association, whose members include some of the most respected city magazines in the country, such as Philadelphia magazine, Texas Monthly and Chicago magazine.

In addition to the CRMA honors, in April Las Vegas Life was voted the Best City and Metropolitan Magazine by the Western Publications Associations. It was the only Nevada publication to be honored at the association's 50th annual Maggie Awards ceremony held in Los Angeles.

Las Vegas Life is published by the Greenspun Media Group, which is managed by the Greenspun Corporation, which also publishes the Las Vegas Sun. The magazine covers fashion, dining, entertainment, design and current events.

The CRMA's 16th annual City Magazine Awards awards were for works published in 2000. Professionals in the journalism field and faculty members of the University of Missouri-Columbia Journalism School judged the more than 880 entries submitted for this year's contest.

This year 63 gold, bronze and silver awards were given in 21 categories.

Philadelphia magazine won the most individual awards, earning recognition in six categories: food/dining criticism, regular column, reporting, personality profile, cover and designer of the year.

"A year ago if you had told me we would be mentioned in the same breath as Philadelphia magazine and Texas Monthly, I would have been blown away," Hagen said of the CRMA awards. "I'm still blown away.

"It gives us validation. We sat in with some of the best of the best."

CRMA awarded the local magazine third place for Excellence in Writing for the July 2000 issue.

Las Vegas Life senior editor Scott Dickensheets received second-place honors in the Writer of the Year category and third place in the Feature Story category for an article titled "Losing Ginger."

Published in January 2000 , "Losing Ginger" was about the 1997 murder of Ginger Rios, a 20-year-old Las Vegas singer and dancer slain by John Flowers, the owner of store that specialized in spy gadgetry.

Dickensheets said of the awards: "I was surprised, shocked, the usual. I was glad to be named."

Dickensheets, who has been an editor with Las Vegas Life for more than two years, said he knows Robert Kurson of Chicago magazine, who won the gold medal in the Writer of the Year category.

"It is no dishonor to lose to him," Dickensheets said.

Dickensheets credited Las Vegas Life editor Amy Schmidt with coming up with the idea for the story that won him the Excellence in Writing award.

"We had access to the husband of the victim," Dickensheets said. "By getting his story, we had a story nobody else could touch."

When the story was published Flowers' trial was about to begin. He pleaded guilty to first degree murder, but has since been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.

"The two of us (Schmidt and Dickensheets) reported (the story) and I wrote it," Dickensheets said.

Hagen said winning the awards was a "validation of all our instincts ... proving we knew what were doing."

He praised Dickensheets' work. "Scott worships magazines," Hagen said. "He is a magazine addict. And some of the writers he idolizes were among his competition."

Hagen said Dickensheets has a talent for telling a good story and at the same time getting at the deeper meaning of the story.

"Scott is very versatile," he said. "I don't know anybody who can do both drama and comedy the way he does."

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