New Media toasts publishing excellence - at home and abroad

Acclaimed VISI editor Sumien Brink was highly commended in the inaugural Jane Raphaely Editor of the Year category and charity customer title, Heart was highly commended in the customer Health, Fitness and Sport category.

New Media's consumer titles were equally rewarded at this year's PICA Awards. Among them INSIG and Drive Out, which also received high commendations in their respective categories.

The PICA Awards followed hot on the heels of news of New Media's international success in winning an Eddie Award, for Front Cover, an annual trade publication published on behalf of Media24 that is distributed exclusively to chief executive officers, marketing and media directors.

New Media scooped bronze in the Eddie Best Supplement Annual or One-Shot category. More than 2200 entries were submitted for this prestigious industry competition, which took place in New York at the end of October.

The rolls royce of the South African magazine industry, Front Cover has also been short listed for an APA (UK Association of Publishers) Award, for the Specialist Communication of the Year.

Sumien Brink, VISI Editor.

At the APA Awards, recognised as the world's most competitive custom publishing awards, New Media will compete alongside the UK's top publisher John Brown, thus reaffirming their position as South Africa's leading contract publishing house.

With over 25 customer publications under its belt, New Media is leading the pack in raising and changing the profile of South African contract publishing at home, while showcasing our local talent abroad.

Looking at the global picture where financial, travel and retail are the biggest categories for contract publishing; New Media's Managing Director Bridget McCarney sees a wealth of potential in the South African market and with this in mind, New Media is hosting the first customer publishing seminar; open to the entire publishing industry, in February 2007.

"Customer magazines is a category apart, in that journalistic skills are applied to a marketing strategy," says McCarney. "Our magazines balance the needs of the client and the aspirations of the reader."

At the Sappi Pica awards in 2003, 2004 and 2005 New Media won more awards than any other publishing company in South Africa, including premier awards for innovation and design.