Lowveld Media on a winning streak

BOKSBURG – It is an exceptional year for the Lowvelder team. On Friday night, this publication won the Cronwright Trophy for Best Corporate-owned Paid Newspaper, circulation more than 10 000, at the annual MDDA-Sanlam Local Media Awards. This was the fifth consecutive year the newspaper has taken the trophy home. Its sister publication, Mpumalanga News, won the Hultzer Trophy for the Best Corporate-owned Paid Newspaper, circulation less than 10 000, giving Lowveld Media two of the most sought-after, best community/local newspaper awards in the country.

The awards ceremony, held at the Birchwood Conference Centre, recognised excellence in local and community print and broadcast journalism and is a national competition.

The judges had the following to say about Lowvelder: “The winning newspaper has a neat layout with clear sections. The stories were well sourced and good follow-ups were the norm. The newspaper’s strong investigative reporting is also commendable.”

The judges also had praise for Mpumlanga News: “The winning newspaper had bold layout, making good use of photographs. The focus was on stories the community wanted to read about and the newspaper’s participation in charity events is commended.”

Journalist Tereasa Ferrari did the stable proud when she walked away with the title as Best Investigative Reporter, while Susanna Oosthuizen was a top-three finalist in the same category. Both Lowvelder and Corridor Gazette were top-three finalists in the category Best Front Page but in different categories for sold- and free newspapers. Lowveld Media’s Steelburger also came in tops as a top-ten finalist in the Best Newspaper Corporate-owned Free Sheets category. Newspapers from all the various media groups in South Africa and as far as Namibia annually participate here for top honours and this year 750 entries were received.

With this achievement, Lowvelder has made history as the first newspaper to win the three biggest titles in the community- newspaper sphere in South Africa in one year. In March Lowvelder won the Caxton Award for the Best Sold Publication with a circulation of 8 000 or more. The Caxton Awards is open for all community newspapers within its stable of

140 nationwide. A huge honour was bestowed upon the newspaper when it won an ATKV-Mediaveertjie as best community newspaper earlier this month.

Group Editor, Ms Irma Green, yesterday said, “We have received these awards in humbleness and are thankful that we could reap the fruits of hard work. It is, however, a huge team effort and every person at Lowveld Media plays an important part in the process. To officially be the best in South Africa comes with a responsibility. First of all we will keep our feet anchored on the ground and keep on doing what we love – produce quality newspapers for our community. We also need to bring thanks to our loyal advertisers without whom we wouldn’t have been able to print newspapers. They are the bread and butter of our industry and determine the success of our publications. Finally we need to give a high five to our readers. They keep us on our toes and come back week after week to read our papers. We acknowledge that we sometimes make mistakes, but we also appreciate all the feedback we get on a daily basis. This has been an unbelievable year for our team and we are in high spirits, eager to push on and do a lot more within our communities!”