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Today the James Beard Foundation announced four new categories for the 2012 Awards: Outstanding Bar Program, Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication, Food Coverage in a Food-Focused Publication, and Visual Storytelling. Because clearly what the James Beard Foundation Awards needs is more awards in more categories.
The addition of "Outstanding Bar Program" makes sense (mixologists were hip five years ago and the JBF is catching up). And as far as "Visual Storytelling" — "excellence in photography, graphic design, and photojournalism" — sure thing.
And whether or not you agree with Anthony Bourdain that the James Beard Awards is a "self congratulatory goat rodeo/awards ceremony/chef shakedown," the new journalism categories might just be overly-broad and redundant. Here's the description of "Food Coverage in a Food-Focused Publication":
