Caxton wins 3 prestigious titles at Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards
Estella Naicker wins Journalist of the Year, with Wayne van der Walt announced as Photographer of the Year.
Caxton walked away with the top honours at the 2022 Avbob FCJ Excellence Awards by winning the Journalist of the Year, Photographer of the Year and Upcoming Journalist of the Year categories.
Hosted by the Forum of Community Journalists NPC (FCJ), the competition has become a well-known event in the media industry, with the number of individual entries almost doubling from last year.
Also read: Caxton dominates Newspaper of the Year categories at AVBOB FCJ Excellence Awards
The 2022 competition attracted 527 individual entries.
After a month of working through hundreds of entries, the panel of judges, under the guidance of convenor André Gouws, selected the finalists and winners in each category.
“Adjudicators were impressed with the quality and sheer number of entries received. With so many entries, the judges faced a difficult task in selecting the winners. Many participants who did not make the list of finalists also entered very good work. The overall quality was impressive and to be a finalist is a big achievement as winners in this competition are truly the best of the best,” says Gouws.
Winners were announced at a prize-giving dinner at the Cape Sun in Cape Town on August 4.
Journalist of the Year was awarded to Estella Naicker from Northern Natal News and Newcastle Advertiser. She also won the investigative reporting category.
The Alet Roux Award for Upcoming Journalist of the Year went to Emily Bain from Northcliff Melville Times, while Wayne van der Walt from Highvelder was announced as the Photographer of the Year. Van der Walt also won the general, hard news and sport photography categories.
Hermanus Times received the Avbob Best Community Involvement Award for its Nomzamo Educare Centre project.
Caxton dominated the Best Front Page categories, with Lowvelder taking the top spot in the corporate-owned paid category and Rosebank Killarney Gazette winning the corporate-owned free category.
The Newspaper of the Year corporate-owned free publication categories were also dominated by Caxton.
Northcliff Melville Times won the award for the best newspaper with a pagination of less than 24 and Polokwane Observer won the pagination of more than 24 category.
Also read: Caxton excels at FCJ Annual Excellence Awards
Knysna-Plett Herald from Group Editors won the corporate-owned paid (circulation under 5 000) category, while Paarl Post won the corporate-owned paid (circulation 5 000+) category, with Lowvelder in second place.
The winners in the writing categories included Victor Mukwevho from Limpopo Mirror – columns; Helena Barnard from NoordkaapBulletin – digital reporting; Dave Savides from Zululand Observer – editorial comment; Andries van Zyl from Zoutpansberger – hard news; Kristy Kolberg from George Herald – headlines; Liezl Scheepers from Parys Gazette – human interest, and Blake Linder from Knysna-Plett Herald – sport.
Group Editors scoop awards at FCJ competition https://t.co/yO1NlnAJpC pic.twitter.com/rpDY28YWan
— Knysna-Plett Herald (@KnysnaPlett) August 5, 2023
Words fail to express just what this means.
2022 FCJ Excellence Awards:
• Winner (Me), Best Sport Writer of the Year
• Winner (Knysna-Plett Herald, of which I'm the News Editor), Newspaper of the Year, Under 5000 Copies
More👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/I1UxnzL01g— Blake Linder (@BlakeBcl) August 4, 2023
JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Estella Naicker
Northern Natal News and Newcastle Advertiser#AvbobFCJAwards pic.twitter.com/ZrylT8rv8M— Forum of Community Journalists (@ForumofCJ) August 5, 2023
