BENCH-marked against more than 100 of the country’s top community newspapers, the Zululand Observer has once again proved its prowess in no uncertain terms.
Competing at the annual Caxton Excellence Awards held in Johannesburg on Thursday, the ZO walked off with three first place awards and no fewer than 12 highly commended and finalist accolades.
While coming a narrow second to the South Coast Herald for the coveted Best Sold Newspaper of the Year (circulation of over 8 000), the ZO team took centre stage with the following:
Category winners:
•Best Original Idea or Innovation: Yolande Veldsman, Ailsa Windsor, Theresa Botha: The Final Countdown Career Guide 2015
•Best Feature Photograph: Amy Jenkins
•Online Sales: Best Home Page Takeover: Wannita Smith, Mpilo Msweli.
Highly Commended:
•Best Major Advertising Feature: Yolande Veldsman, Ailsa Windsor, Theresa Botha: The Final Countdown Career Guide 2015
•Best Original Idea or Innovation: Tammy Harmse, Tanya Smit, Marissa van Schalkwyk, Theresa Botha, Anton de Waal, Benice Gertzen, Marce Bressler: ‘The Little Black Book’
•Online: Best Site Category: Zululand Observer
•Online: Best Multimedia Presence of the Year – Zululand Observer – Top Three
Finalists:
•Best Designed and Written Large-Sized Advertisment: Tammy Harmse, Benice Gertzen
•Best Regular Column: Rachelle Breed
•Best Portrait Photograph: Larry Bentley
•Best Sport Photograph: Larry Bentley (2), Kyle Cowan
•Most Promising Newspaper Journalist of the Year – Wellington Makwakwa
•Newspaper Journalist of the Year – Kyle Cowan, Rachelle Breed.
Proud of the team
‘Modern technology enabled me to instantly share in the excitement and joy last night as the ZO staff made their presence felt through their many achievements in the national Caxton newspaper awards,’ said ZO Managing Director, Regina Anthony.
‘This was especially pleasing considering that they competed against the formidable stable of Caxton publications.
‘What really thrilled me were the young new faces of the winners, proving to our loyal readers and advertisers that our new generation of young professionals will continue building on our already established reputation of excellence.
‘The Zululand Observer has embraced the futuristic concept of online and print media with flying colours.’
