/ 22 August 2003

Mail & Guardian scoops two awards

The Mail & Guardian walked away with two industry awards this week, proving once more that it’s Africa’s best read.

Nawaal Deane, the M&G‘s health reporter, has won a US/SA Excellence in Health Reporting Award.

Her story ”Counting the costs of three million lives” (published on March 7), about government foot-dragging on anti-retroviral treatment for people with HIV/Aids, was judged best report in the category of print publications with a circulation of fewer than 50 000.

”Nawaal’s stories not only display expertise and tenacity, but are also laden with empathy for the people she writes about,” M&G editor Mondli Makhanya said. ”That is why she has made such an impact in this crucial field of health journalism.”

The M&G won yet another award on Thursday when the winners of the Frewin/McCall/Mervis newspaper design and production awards were announced.

The M&G won the Joel Mervis competition, which has been in existence for eight years and is open to all urban weekly newspapers.

The Mervis competition evaluates typography and layout, graphics and pictures, printing, production and advertisements. It is limited to weekly newspapers. The issues of the newspaper that were evaluated were selected by the judges.

Managing editor Tracy Steward said: ”It’s a great achievement for the M&G‘s sub-editors, who have worked hard over the past two years to refine the design created for the newspaper by an international, award-winning team of designers from The Guardian newspaper.”

The convening judge, Professor Govin Reddy, and three senior industry members evaluated entrants in three categories of newspapers — urban dailies, urban dailies with a circulation below 50 000 and urban weekly newspapers.

Reddy said: ”Though there is considerable variation in quality, the main South African newspapers are visually of a high standard.

”Most newspapers are projecting good photographs, especially in the sport sections.

”Greater use of info-graphics in the news sections and more attention to repro quality will enhance editorial efforts.

”However, the judges concurred that there are more good-looking newspapers than before and the leading contenders can stand proud with the best in the world”.

A total of 17 dailies and 18 weeklies entered the 2003 competition, organised by the Newspaper Association of South Africa.

The winner of the Frewin competition, which has been in existence for the past 54 years and is open to all urban daily newspapers, was Die Beeld (Media 24). Second and third went to Business Day (Johnnic Publishing Ltd) and the Daily Sun (RCP Media) respectively.

The winner of the McCall competition, which has been running for the past 42 years and is open to all urban daily newspapers with a circulation below 50 000, was Business Day (Johnnic Publishing Ltd). The Natal Witness (Natal Witness Printing & Publishing Ltd) and The Mercury (Independent Newspapers: KwaZulu-Natal) took second and third place.

Second place in the Joel Mervis competition went to Rapport (RCP Media), with Naweek Beeld (Media 24) coming third. — Sapa