The Newspaper Association of South Africa has announced the finalists in this year’s Frewin, Joel Mervis and McCall awards, the newspaper industry’s most prestigious competition which recognises excellence in a range of disciplines.

Areas examined include advertising, printing and production, layout and typography as well as the balance between the use of pictures and graphics.

Criteria for the awards, which have been presented for a collective 109 years, are set by the industry and aim to encourage and reward publishers who stand out in their production of quality products.

A total of 16 daily and 24 weekly newspapers entered this year’s awards. 

The judging panel is made up of recognised industry experts Clive Loxton, creative faculty head of the AAA School of Advertising; Logan Naidu, learnerships and apprenticeships specialist at Mappp-seta; Marilyn du Toit, lecturer in Graphic design at the AAA School of Advertising, and Linda Rademan, lecturer in art direction at the AAA School of Advertising.

Convenor of judges Clive Loxton noted that the work entered this year demonstrates that the industry can be proud of the high standards it is achieving. “With the global economic recession threatening our prosperity, it’s reassuring to know the fundamentals of our craft are in place.”

The finalists are:

The Frewin Award for urban daily newspapers with a circulation above 50,000:

·        Beeld
·        Daily News
·        Daily Sun
·        Die Burger
·        The Star

The McCall Award for urban daily newspapers with a circulation of 50,000 or less:

·        Business Day
·        The Pretoria News
·        The Mercury
·        The Witness
·        Volksblad

The Joel Mervis Award for urban weekly newspapers irrespective of their circulation:

·        Mail & Guardian
·        Naweek Beeld
·        Post
·        Rapport
·        Sunday Independent

The winners will be announced at the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards ceremony at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg on Wednesday, May 6.

Print Media SA Members

CITY OF TSHWANE ADVERTISING

Dear Members

In light of the many queries received regarding this matter, we would like to provide a handy list of criteria to be used in determining whether or not a particular piece of communication would qualify as advertising and if so, would be subject to the active Ad-Alert relating to advertising by the Tshwane Metropolitan Council.

ADVERTISING THAT WOULD NOT BE SUBJECT TO THE ACTIVE AD-ALERT:

.Party – political advertising (this falls under the jurisdiction of the Independent Electoral Commission – IEC)

.Legal Notices (example - public meetings to discuss pending legislation, or notices of job opportunities)

ADVERTISING THAT WOULD BE SUBJECT TO THE ACTIVE AD ALERT:

.Any advertising that has a commercial motive (example - advertising promoting a fair to be held in Tshwane)

.Advertising that promotes Tshwane as such (example - advertising encouraging readers to visit Tshwane or any of its popular sites.

Members are reminded that the Ad-Alert is NOT limited to advertising using the claim originally ruled against. This alert applies to ANY commercial advertising PLACED BY, OR ON BEHALF OF THE TSHWANE METROPOLITAN COUNCIL.

For any queries, please contacts do not hesitate to contact Print Media SA on 011 484 3624 the Advertising Standards Authority on 011 781 2006.

Your cooperation in this regard is highly appreciated.

You can download the official letter from Ingrid Louw (CEO of Print Media SA)