Editor Alita van der Walt will be jetting off to Argentina in September as a winner of the Alltech International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) Young Leaders in Agricultural Journalism award. She will be one of 10 people chosen from 31 countries to attend the IFAJ congress as part of her prize. Van der Walt said the IFAJ’s annual conference presented a unique opportunity to interact with agricultural writers from across the globe.
“South Africa’s media and agricultural industry has to function within an international arena and the conference promises to provide an in-depth perspective into both these industries. I’m very grateful to the Agricultural Writers Association of South Africa for nominating me.”
Van der Walt has also been named one of Media magazine’s 40 most powerful and influential people under the age of 40 in the media industry. Nearly 200 people were nominated for the award and the finalists consisted of people deemed to be making a difference in the media industry.
The judges saluted her for continuously increasing the magazine’s circulation and advertising revenue since she took over as editor in 2011. The Caxton Excellence Awards saw other members of the Farmer’s Weekly team receive accolades. Mike Burgess received merit awards for Writer of the Year and for the best ‘Slice of Life’ feature for his article on Wild Coast fishing.
Copy editor Paul Sulter received a merit award for Best Body of Copy Editing. The Classified Salesperson of the Year award went to Meshack Leshabane, while Francois Jansen van Rensburg received a merit award in this category.
