So Close tops SA blog awards

A year's worth of opinion, thousands of nominated blogs in 16 categories, more than 5000 confirmed public votes – and Blog of the Year in the recent third annual South African Weblog awards has gone to Tertia Albertyn's personal weblog, So Close, an intimate account of her personal battle with infertility.

“The aim of the South African blogs awards is to give the uninitiated a taste of what's on offer locally,” says Jonathan Cherry, MD of Cherryflava Media, host of the awards.

“The number of blogs in South Africa has seen phenomenal growth in the last year. People are finding their voices online and are really starting to have a giant, collective online conversation.”

Albertyn's win rounds off a very successful 2006 for her blog, which has seen her sign a book deal and make it through to the finals of the Blooker Awards, an international award for bloggers who have published books, competing against global authors.

Popular local celebrity Steve Hofmeyr's personal blog scooped Best New Blog of the Year and surprisingly Best Political Blog by popular vote - showing that the entertainer's reach has extended far into South Africa's digital community.

New category winners Reluctant Nomad for Best Gay/Lesbian/Bi and Trans-sexual Blog, The Muso for Best Music Blog and The ZA Show for Best Podcast have set the bar for their areas of focus, which are sure to become hotly contested niches going forward as the South African blogging community goes from strength to strength, according to Cherry.

The full list of winners and runners up is available at http://2007.sablogawards.com.