After receiving a record-breaking number of entries, organisers of the African Digital Media Awards announced that the Food For Mzansi Group received three nominations in this year’s competition.
Food For Mzansi, the sister publication of FoodForAfrika.com, has been nominated in the best digital advertising category for its inaugural Pan-African Summit on Youth in Agriculture. This is the summit where FoodForAfrika.com was launched a mere nine months ago, in Pretoria, South Africa.
Here, participants tuned in from across the continent, where leaders in youth in agriculture weighed in on a number of topics in the form of keynote addresses and panel discussions.
“It has been an honour to form part of the FoodForAfrika.com team, and see our sister publications thrive not only in such a niche industry, but a highly competitive one,” said Lucinda Dordley, head of news for FoodForAfrika.com, the youngest publication in the Food For Mzansi Group.
Africa’s cream of the crop
Presented by WAN-IFRA, the global organisation of the world’s press, it is considered the most prestigious awards for digital news publishers on the African continent.
“This year we had a record number of entries submitted. Amid another challenging year, it was inspiring to see so many incredible projects,” said the WAN-IFRA Digital Revenue Network in a release issued earlier today.
In the competition category for best use of online video, Food For Mzansi was nominated for No room to hide: Climate change in the Cape Winelands. It focuses on the effects of climate change on one of the world’s leading wine regions. In its existence of nearly four years, Food For Mzansi has won 11 global media awards, including Africa’s best digital news start-up in 2019.
The other nominees are Arena Holdings for The exclusive story of Lindani Myeni and Tiso Blackstar for The killer cop, Rosemary Ndlovu. All three nominees in this category are from South African publishers.
Global panel of judges
“This year has truly been a rollercoaster ride for our team,” says Ivor Price, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Food For Mzansi Group.
“Besides our flagship agriculture news publication, we also gave birth to Health For Mzansi and FoodForAfrika.com. When the nominations list came out this morning, we were a little emotional because everyone has worked so incredibly hard.”
Food For Mzansi’s sister publication Health For Mzansi was nominated as best Gen Z initiative, a continent-wide celebration of efforts to reach a younger audience who most frequently get their news from social media. Health For Mzansi is up against Maghreb Arabe Presse in Morocco and Media24 in South Africa.
Food For Mzansi’s Pan-African Summit on Youth in Sustainable Agriculture was nominated in the best digital advertising category. The summit attracted virtual attendees from no less than 15 different African countries with an in-person audience in Pretoria. It was also used as a launch pad for FoodForAfrika.com, Food For Mzansi’s Africa-wide sister publication.
Making a huge difference
Kobus Louwrens, Food For Mzansi Group co-founder and strategy director adds, “We’re especially pleased with the recognition the editorial excellence of our new publications are receiving. Our mission is to create a stable of niche products that develop new audiences and make a meaningful social impact.”
A total of 25 judges reviewed entries from across the continent for this year’s African Digital Media Awards. This included Joan Mwai from The Standard Group in Kenya, Nic Newman from the United Kingdom-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Danyelle White from The Salt Lake Tribune in the United States, Fanny Bonjean from Le Parisien in France, and Katarzyna Ostrowska from Puls Biznesu in Poland.
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