New PICA chairperson to reform magazine awards

Du Plessis has replaced Liezl de Swardt as Pica chairperson for 2007. Elected early December last year, De Swardt - who is also the MD of Alchemy Publishing - told Bizcommunity.com that she has declined to take up the post due to work and family commitments.

De Swardt was due to make an announcement about a new plan on a consolidated magazine publishers and magazine journalism award to the board of MPASA in February 2007. Now, the baton has been passed on to Du Plessis.

Lack of sponsorship

MPASA is the body that hosts the Pica Awards for excellence in magazine publishing. According to Du Plessis, the MPASA Mondi Magazine Awards are now the thing of the past. "I can confirm to you that there won't be a Mondi Magazine Awards anymore because of the lack of sponsorship," she told Bizcommunity.com earlier this week.

In a statement released in December 2006 by Mondi, spokesperson Viv McMenamin explained that Mondi would be focusing on events in the future that reflected its core business. It is still a sponsor of the Mondi Newspaper Awards for 2007.

"The integration of Mondi Business Paper South Africa into its European operations and the replacement of its Supercalendered (magazine paper) machine in Durban with the new Paper Machine 31 has led to an exclusive focus on office paper markets. It was therefore decided that sponsorship efforts should be geared towards events such as the Mondi Business Paper Ithabise Awards, which is in its core market arena. The company has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with the Magazine Publishing Association over the past 16 years, and we wish them all the best as they continue to promote excellence in this field in future," said McMenamin.

Reconceptualising

Du Plessis continued: "The Pica committee has a task of reconceptualising the Picas whereby the journalism awards will be incorporated. I am in the process of getting the process together and we will present the board with a proposal in February.

"It is quite exciting as we really want to create an award that will not only serve the entire magazine publishing community, but will be the premier event of the year and will promote and market the magazine industry as a whole," Du Plessis added.

Gus Silber, a former judge and multi-award winner of the Mondis, told Bizcommunity.com that he will dearly miss the Mondi Magazine Awards. "It is very unfortunate that they won't be taking place anymore," Silber said. "These were the best awards that every journalist dreamt and strove to win. And it was also very enjoyable to be one of the judges. A lot depended on the generosity of the sponsor and in this case Mondi was really generous; we must be thankful to them."

Call to entries

Meanwhile, Cathy Pestana of the Newspaper Association of South Africa is appealing to all newspaper journalists, feature writers, photographers, graphic and layout artists to enter the best of their work in the sixth edition of the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards, due to take place on 25 April 2007 at the Sandton Hilton Hotel in Johannesburg.

9 February 2007 is the deadline for entries' submissions. Call Cathy or Sandipa on +27 (0)11 721 3200/1/2 or email or .