Winners of Women in Media awards announced

29 Jul 2011

The winner of the 2011 Women in The Media Awards is Phylicia Oppelt, editor of The Times, of the Rising Star Award is Mandy Wiener, journalist at Radio 702 and author of best-selling book 'Killing Kebble' and the Lifetime Achiever Award has gone to Ethel Hazelhurst, senior journalist at Business Report.

Sandra Gordon, Phylicia Oppelt and Robyn Farrell

The awards, sponsored by 1st for Women Insurance Brokers, were announced yesterday, Thursday, 28 July 2011 at the annual competition, which recognises women who have made their mark within the media sphere across the content, commercial and academic fields.

Editorial leadership

Oppelt's editorship at The Times has seen circulation increased. Launched in 2007, in three years, readership has grown to 330 000. Previously she was editor of the Eastern Cape's Daily Dispatch, which was commended for its online newspaper campaign. Simultaneously, Oppelt was the editor of the Sunday Times Business Times until 2010. As author of a regular column published in the Sunday Times between 2000 and 2004, Oppelt garnered national respect for providing penetrating social and political commentary about a country in flux.

Oppelt is a newspaper person, but also a leader and businessperson, having initiated a number of management changes on all publications, appointing several women to positions of leadership.

Mandy Wiener, Ethel Hazelhurst, Sandra Gordon, Phylicia Oppelt and Robyn Farrell

Rising star

Wiener has received numerous awards, most recently from the National Press Club who named her Journalist of the Year in the radio category. Specialising in legal battles, she has covered some of the biggest news stories of the last five years.

Breaking the glass ceiling

While women's editor of the Rand Daily Mail, Hazelhurst earned a degree in economics through Unisa. In 1985, she moved to the Financial Mail and then to the Star's business pages - thus making a great success of a career in a domain overwhelmingly occupied by men. The Independent Group has founded the annual Dave and Ethel Hazelhurst fellowship for a journalism student as a fitting tribute for one who has nurtured the careers of many young journalists.

Apart from being an award-winning journalist, she is the author of a book, 'Banking on change', which follows South Africa's business growth through democratisation 1994-2004.