Lowvelder remains the best in South Africa
It was crowned Best Corporate-owned Paid Newspaper during the FCJ awards.
CENTURION – Lowvelder shone at the Forum of Community Journalists’ 2016 Local Media Excellence Awards in Centurion on Friday evening. It was crowned Best Corporate-owned Paid Newspaper during the high-end function attended by 100 guests and competition finalists.
The event was held at Leriba Lodge and guests were treated to top cuisine and fine wine. The atmosphere was festive, with colleagues turned industry friends enjoying the chance to catch up and celebrate each others’ successes.
Among the guests were a knowledgeable judging panel including Joe Thloloe, executive director of the Press Council, Dr Thalyta Swanepoel from the University of North-West and retired professor, Johann de Jager.
The judges praised Lowvelder for its content, layout and printing. According to them, Lowvelder is in keeping with its readers and a national industry leader.
Its Business & Finance and ProHabitat sections were praised, as was its regular use of reader’s letters.
In the same category category, Paarl Post was the runner-up and Weslander was awarded the third place.
Lowvelder was awarded third place in the Best Front Page category. Weslander was the runner-up and Paarl Post the winner.
In their feedback, judges praised exceptional work done by community journalists and photographers.
Photography judges, Frennie Shivambu, Lefty Shivambu and Yolanda van der Stoep were impressed with entries in photographic categories.
In the Journalist of the Year category, criticism was levelled against entrants for breaching the profession’s ethical code in some reports that led to the entrants not being considered. The quality of digital journalism entries was described as “fair, but it could have been better”.
Various Lowvelder journalists were among those honoured on Friday.
In the Journalist of the Year category, Elize Parker was awarded third place.
Zoutpansberger’s Andries van Zyl was the runner-up and Middelburg Observer’s Daleen Naudé won the coveted award.
Former Lowvelder journalist Desiré Rorke, now with TygerBurger, won the human interest category.
In the headline and sports writing categories, Lowvelder’s Mark Kinnear was a finalist. No winner was announced in the headline category and George Herald’s Hugo Redelinghuys walked away with top honours in sports writing.
Former Lowvelder reporter Wouter Pienaar, now with Potchefstroom Herald, was the runner-up.
