The Mail & Guardian Online‘s Thought Leader, where some of South Africa’s finest minds stir up debate every day, on Wednesday evening scooped South African web log of the year at the 2008 SA Blog Awards, beating formidable competition including SA Rocks and the popular Too Much Coffee? and Peas on Toast.
At an awards ceremony held in Cape Town, Thought Leader also scooped the prize for best political blog. Also, Amatomu, the South African blog aggregator owned and managed by the M&G Online, was named best website promoting blogging.
Only South African blogs could be nominated for the awards, and voting by blog readers took place online. These votes counted 70% of the final vote, with the rest comprising votes by a panel of international bloggers (15%) and a second panel of “celebrity” non-blogging judges.
Commented M&G Online and Thought Leader editor Riaan Wolmarans: “Thought Leader has been wildly successful since its launch in mid-2007, and we have to thank our hard-working contributors — from Steven Friedman, Christi van der Westhuizen, Ronald Suresh Roberts to Ndumiso Ngcobo, Michael Trapido, Arthur Goldstuck, Sandile Memela and many, many others — for helping us grow so quickly.
“Their words are what make Thought Leader a good read, not forgetting, of course, the hundreds of comments left by the site’s readers every day — these run the gamut from funny and irreverent to insightful and informed, and even irate.”
East Coast Radio had a fine night out as it won best humorous blog for its Big Breakfast Blog, best new blog for its News Watch Blog.
Cook Sister! was named best overseas South African blog, and the M&G Online‘s general manager, Matthew Buckland, won best business blog for his own Matthewbuckland.com.
Other winners were Imod.co.za for best IT blog, Skinny Laminx for best blog about design, Urban Sprout for best green blog and Living Life Breathlessly for best undiscovered blog.
And the grand prize? “Apart from the honour of being the best, the winner of the best overall South African blog will win a purse of 2008 South African cents (R20,08),” said the SA Blog Awards organisers. We’re taking everyone out to lunch!
On the net
View all the SA Blog Awards nominees and winners