Whoa! The nominees for the most prestigious digital news awards on the African continent have just been announced, and Food For Mzansi has made the cut in no less than seven different categories.
South Africa’s foremost online publication for agricultural news and lifestyle content is tied with industry giant News24 for the most nominations in the prestigious 2020 African Digital Media Awards.
Presented by WAN-IFRA, the global organisation for the world’s press, the winners will be announced on Thursday, 8 September during the Digital Media Africa virtual conference.
“I think #TeamFoodForMzansi has just collectively fainted,” says the leading agricultural news and lifestyle brand’s co-founder Ivor Price who shared the news with the team during a WhatsApp video call moments ago. “We’re only turning two in November, and now we’re mentioned in the same breath as some of our news role models, including News24, Daily Maverick and the Mail & Guardian.”
The African Digital Media Awards is described as the most prestigious competition in the industry for publishers to benchmark their digital offerings. The competition draws innovative publishers from across Africa who submitted their engaging digital media campaigns and content to see where they stack up against their peers.
7 category nominations
During next week’s Digital Media Africa conference, Food For Mzansi will be competing with News24 and the African News Agency in the special attendee’s choice category for the best covid-19 special project. Besides this, Food For Mzansi counts among the top three finalists in the following categories:
- best news website in Africa;
- best in audience engagement for its Farmer’s Inside Track channel;
- best project for news literacy for its Sinelizwi citizen journalism project;
- best digital marketing campaign for its #TakeUpSpace project;
- best native advertising campaign for its Mzansi Flavour lockdown recipes; and
- best covid-19 special project for its Thandi and Captain Stay Safe project.
“There are no words to describe our excitement,” remarked Food For Mzansi co-founder Kobus Louwrens. “We’re a new kid on the African media block, and the nominations are testimony not only to the quality of our content offering, but also our passion for creating media that can positively influence South Africa and the greater continent.”
Dawn Noemdoe, Food For Mzansi’s editor for audience and engagement, says she is still speechless after the big news. “We’d love to dedicate all seven nominations to our wonderful partners, including our family at VKB, our clients and nearly a million readers. We especially want to thank the CEO of our digital partner, YehBaby Digital, Ronelle Louwrens and her team for the amazing work they do. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
In a media release, WAN-IFRA says the annual awards recognise publishers who have delivered unique and original digital media projects in the last 12 months. From new approaches to digital subscriptions, to impactful native advertising campaigns – projects that inspire us all. Last year, Food For Mzansi was awarded as Africa’s best digital news start-up and the runners-up in the category for best social media engagement.
