The Frewin, McCall and Joel Mervis awards, championed by the Newspaper Association of South Africa, have been in existence for a collective 120 years and recognise newspaper excellence in advertising, printing and production, layout and typography as well as a balanced use of pictures and graphics.
Judges were tasked with reviewing full copies of newspapers published in 2010 and 2011 and selecting the best in three categories of newspapers – urban dailies with a circulation above 50,000, urban dailies with a circulation below 50,000 and urban weeklies. The competition seeks to encourage and recognise publishers who excel in producing quality newspapers.
Commenting on the influence of technology on newspaper production, convenor Clive Loxton, creative faculty head of the AAA School of Advertising, said, “With several teams having reworked the ‘look’ of their offerings, it is obvious that computer programmes are having a major effect on the craft. However, the computer is just a sophisticated tool; the main benefit of which is to speed things up and make things easier to achieve. It will never replace the ‘eye’ of a craftsman.”
The Frewin award category recognises urban daily newspapers with a circulation above 50 000. Finalists in this category are:
· Beeld
· Die Burger
Commended: Cape Argus
Finalists in the McCall award category, which honours urban daily newspapers with a circulation of 50 000 or less, are:
· Die Volksblad
· The Mercury
Commended: Daily News and The Witness
The Joel Mervis category, recognising urban weekly newspapers irrespective of their circulation, yielded the following finalists:
· City Press
· Mail & Guardian
Commended: Naweek Beeld, Rapport and Sunday Independent
Loxton was supported during the judging process by Linda Rademan, lecturer at AAA School of Advertising; Logan Naidu, learnerships and apprenticeships specialist at MAPPP-SETA; and Tebogo Serobatse, head of department at the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA).
The winners will be announced at the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards ceremony at Turbine Hall in Johannesburg on 10 May.
For Twitter updates, follow @MondiShanduka.
