Farmer’s Weekly was off to a good start at the first annual Caxton Magazines Excellence Awards held on 18 May in Johannesburg.
Explaining the judging process, group creative adviser Angela Brooks said all entries had passed through a preliminary round of judging, conducted by the editors, to ensure they were all of a suitably high standard. They were then judged by a panel of external judges, all experts in their respective fields, and winners were selected on the basis that their work was exceptional and of an international standard.
Merit awards recognised excellence in each category. In some categories there were no winners, as the judges felt there was no entry displaying the excellence required. Those, however, were not the categories Farmer’s Weekly entered. We can proudly say that a journalist from Farmer’s Weekly won an award in every category the magazine entered.
Field sports author Abré J Steyn scooped the top award and was crowned 2007 Writer of the Year for his article “The Old Man and the Boy”. The judges described it as a wonderfully evocative piece of writing, “simple, clear and perfectly pitched. His other entries also displayed a striking talent for leading the reader into the story, combining strength of writing with solid structure, depth of knowledge and hands-on experience. His entries leaped out from the pack like a fish out of water!”
Stephan Hofstätter won the award for best investigative feature for “Land Reform: Driving in Reverse Gear”. “A strong, very relevant, well-written article with nationwide implications,” the judges said. In the same category Stephan also received a merit award for “The Wild Coast Land Scandal”, and Mike Burgess won one for “A Boer War Battle Sparked by Sheep Thieves?” Not one to break a winning streak, Stephan also won the reportage category for “The New Dawn of SA’s Land Reform”. “Excellent and very readable. A well-researched, motivational article about positive developments within South Africa. A unique way of writing about land reform, virtually a step-by-step guide,” the judges said about this article.
Chris Nel was crowned the best writer of a real-life feature for “A Young Farmer on His Way Up”, an article about the life of Botswana farmer Eras van Niekerk. “Chris’s feature was well written, highly informative and perfectly tuned to its target market,” the judges said.
Our food writer David Basckin got a merit award in the best food feature category for his “Braai Rietbok and Salsa” article. Our cartoonist Dr Jack won two merit awards in the Image of the Year – Illustration or Cartoon category. His entries were “Is it a Bird?” and “Ja, The Eskom Guy is Here…” Deputy editor Jasper Raats was awarded a merit award in Image of the Year – Photograph category for his vulture cover. – Staff report
