Quanta Wins 2025 National Magazine Award for Best Single-Topic Issue and Webby People’s Voice Award
What’s considered a magazine in 2025? Quanta Magazine has never made a print issue, but for over a decade, the award-winning science publication has presented magazine journalism in a wide variety of digital formats. For “The Unraveling of Space-Time,” Quanta blended longform journalism, original art, dynamic design, documentary video and interactivity to burrow a mind-blowing rabbit hole in the fabric of reality.
On April 10, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) honored Quanta with the 2025 National Magazine Award for Best Single-Topic Issue for this series. Quanta’s single-topic issue was made up of nine different pieces backed by months of research and reporting, and evokes the feeling of paging through a print magazine dedicated to one awe-inspiring topic. The project was led by senior editor Natalie Wolchover and executive editor Michael Moyer, and involved multiple stories by staff writer Charlie Wood.
“The package successfully uses a variety of formats, including reported stories, Q and A’s, interactive graphics and expert video, to explore complex questions,” read the ASME judge’s citation. “And where many single-topic issues fall into the trap of wearing out a theme, here the reader’s understanding grows with every piece they read or watch.”
“It’s a little intimidating, scary even, to question the fundamental nature of reality,” said editor in chief Samir Patel. “And then to decide, ‘That sounds like a great idea for a magazine issue’? It’s a testament to the expansive vision, deep knowledge and storytelling chops of the staff at Quanta that we could not just make it, but make it fun and enlightening. It feels like something only we could do.”
Quanta previously won a National Magazine Award, nicknamed an “Ellie,” for General Excellence in Literature, Science and Politics in 2020. In 2022, the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting went to the staff of Quanta Magazine, notably Natalie Wolchover, for “The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.” That piece was also a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting.
“This kind of recognition from the American Society of Magazine Editors is deeply gratifying, because it suggests that we’re covering basic science in a way that’s accessible and appealing for general readers, not just science enthusiasts,” said Wolchover.
On April 22, the magazine also won a second People’s Voice Award for Best Science Website from The Webby Awards, which annually recognize excellence online. That award is decided by loyal audiences who vote for their favorite websites in a range of categories.
Quanta Magazine is an award-winning, editorially independent online publication of the Simons Foundation.