Spirituality & Health: A Unity Publication Wins Top Honors at the 2025 FOLIO: Awards

Ending its first year, Spirituality & Health^®: A Unity Publication was named Print Magazine of the Year at the 2025 FOLIO: Eddie and Ozzie Awards. The magazine is a hybrid of Unity Magazine, which began publication in 1889 as Modern Thought, and Spirituality & Health, founded in 1998.

When Unity purchased S&H in January 2024, the magazines were combined to create a new hybrid with the intent of weaving together the strengths of both publications. “I guess this means our plan worked,” joked S&H editor in chief Katy Koontz in accepting the award during the FOLIO: awards ceremony on October 6 in New York City.  

S&H was among seven finalists for the top spot, besting several high-circulation magazines, including Travel + Leisure (4.8 million) and Real Simple (1.98 million). “It felt like a David and Goliath moment,” Koontz said after the ceremony.  

A Standout Print Magazine

FOLIO: describes Print Magazine of the Year this way: “This award honors a standout print magazine that continues to set the standard for editorial excellence, design innovation, and audience impact. Recognizing a publication that thrives in the print medium, this category celebrates outstanding storytelling, visual artistry, production quality, and brand influence in an evolving media landscape.”  

Magazines were judged on editorial depth, design creativity, reader engagement, circulation success, and overall industry impact.  

One factor in winning Magazine of the Year is that S&H is unusually well-positioned in the market, Koontz explains. “We are the only publication that covers the full spectrum of spiritual exploration and wellness. The other titles in the genre are niche magazines. Our editorial breadth resonates with the fast-growing ‘spiritual but not religious’ demographic, which continues to grow every year, according to data from the Pew Research Center.”  

Another factor in the win is that circulation nearly doubled when the two magazines were blended. Unity also launched a new digital platform for the publication, featuring audio and video content, and put the print magazine on newsstands starting in 2025.  

In addition to winning Print Magazine of the Year, S&H won two Ozzie awards for outstanding design and an Eddie award for editorial excellence at this year’s event.  

• An Ozzie award for best digital integration with print for the March/April 2025 issue. Laura Carl is art director of the print magazine, and Mark Szymanski oversees design for the digital magazine.
• A second Ozzie award for best AI-assisted design for “From Seeker to Finder” designed by Carl for the May/June 2025 issue.
• An Eddie award for best single article in a religious/spiritual/inspirational magazine for “This Is Your Brain on Politics” by Allan Hamilton, M.D., a regular S&H contributor, from the September/October 2024 issue.

Other FOLIO: Awards

Fellow finalists in the same categories as Unity publications include such prestigious magazines and websites as Reader’s Digest, Parade, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Consumer Reports, Playboy, Guideposts, WebMD, and CNET. Another honor from FOLIO: came in 2019, when Koontz (who began editing Unity Magazine in 2013) was named to the FOLIO: 100, which FOLIO: describes as recognizing “the best and brightest minds in the publishing industry.” 

During the past 11 years, Unity has won 12 Eddies (plus 21 additional honorable mentions) as well as four Ozzies (plus six additional honorable mentions) for a total of 43 FOLIO: honors.

At a time when the print industry is navigating immense change,  Spirituality & Health:  A Unity Publication  continues to inspire and empower its readers to change their lives—one new thought at a time.