And the nominees for the best of South African magazine journalism are...

Journalists, reporters and columnists, photographers, designers and illustrators responded to the call for entries in January 2003 and collectively submitted 680 entries from 85 publications, ranging from trade and technical to consumer and professional.

The Magazine Awards, a partnership between Mondi Paper and the Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa (MPASA), have endeavoured to raise the profile of the industry's most talented individuals, by recognising and rewarding excellence in South African magazine journalism.

"Once again, the Mondis have allowed us to take the vital and vigorous pulse of magazine journalism, illustration, design and photography in South Africa," says Gus Silber, convenor of the Magazine Awards judging panel. "In each of the 15 categories, there were entries that moved us, provoked us, enlightened and delighted us, as much as they opened our eyes to the wealth of established and emerging talent at the heart of our industry."

Assisting Silber with the deliberation and debate of the judging process were media personalities and specialists Sue Grant-Marshall, Joe Khumalo, Latiefa Mobara, Anna Boshoff, Denis Beckett (former panel convenor), De Waal Venter, Shona Bagley, award-winning photographer TJ Lemon and columnist and author Darrel Bristow-Bovey.

The category attracting the most entries with 82 submissions was Design and Illustration. The finalists in this section are Jaco Janse van Rensburg for "Visi 8 Section Openers" and "Visi 9 Section Openers" in Visi, Kelly Fletcher for "Cause & Effect" in SL and Michael Stallenberg for "Detour" in Design Indaba.

The second most popular category was Features with 78 entries. The finalists in this section are Mike Behr for "Reclaiming life" and "A mother's story" in FairLady, Elsabé Brits, Willemien Brümmer and Petro Roosendaal for "Skaduwêreld" in Insig, Pippa de Bruyn for "Full Circle" in O - The Oprah Magazine and Alexander Strachan, Hilton Hamann and Kirby van der Merwe for "Kontak!" in Insig.

In the Industry category, the finalists were selected from 76 entries. They are Christian Eedes for "The spirit of Kaizan" in Wine, Marian Giesen for "Style Pollution" in Architechnology, Case Rijsdijk for "Exploring eternity" in Popular Mechanics and Andrew Stone for "Zimbabwe - an economy destroyed" in SA Mining.

The finalists in the Business category are Megan Chronis for "School's in... Lessons from CNA's downfall" in Buy-in, Patricia McCracken for "Dodge the debt sharks" in Bona, Chris Nel for "An ingenious indigenous chicken enterprise" in Farmer's Weekly, Pieter Schoombee for his two entries "Die toets vir Tigon" in Insig and "Enron: Can it happen here?" in Business 2.0.

This year's Health and Wellness category finalists are Jane Badham, Andreas Späth and Sam Wilson for "Is there fish in my tomato?" in Shape, Hilary Bassett for "How healthy are our health services?" in Longevity, Eunice Rider for "The stem cell solution" in Baby & Me and Lydia van der Merwe for "Wit, Afrikaans, Getroud - en MIV-positief" in Sarie.

Finalists in the Beauty category are Daniela Massenz for "Looking forward to beauty" in Imagine and "Marine miracles" in Shape, Leigh Toselli for various articles in Longevity and Y, Laura Twiggs for "Botox on the guest list at 30-something parties" in Femina and Toni Younghusband for "Breast safari" in Shape.

The At Home category finalists are Stephen Falcke for Style Décor 2002, Tina-Marié Malherbe for "Die jaar word ryp..." in Visi, Jenny Simpson for "Grow/Supergrass" in Elle Decoration and Shelley Street for "Touchy feely" in Elle Decoration.

The finalists in Reviews are the FHM staff for "Reviews" in FHM, Susan Joubert for "Writers to write home about" in Baby & Me, Francois Smith for "Die onvolwasse, impotente superhelde" and "Die manne moor... en die vroue rou" in Insig and Ivor Powell for "David Koloane" in Art South Africa.

In Essays and Fiction, the finalists are Gcina Mhlophe for "Fly, Hat, Fly!" in O - The Oprah Magazine, Nola Muller for "When the Chanting Stopped" in FairLady, Sean O'Toole for "An African Grey" in SL and Dana Snyman for various articles in Huisgenoot.

Foresight category finalists are Johan Gallant for "Africanis Series" in Farmer's Weekly, Itumeleng Mahabane for "Dear Tata President" in Y, Patricia McCracken for her two entries "Saving our muthi" and "School fees: No more ripoffs" in Bona, and Sybrand Mostert for "Innovations Unlimited..." in Popular Mechanics.

In the Leisure category, the finalists are Jonathan Ancer for "Mister Floppy" in SL, Heather Dugmore for "Adventures in 'big two town'" in Sawubona, Sarah Duguid for "The Eagles have landed" in GQ and Jake Rusznyak for "Youth in Asia" in SL.

The Fashion finalists are Jackie Burger for various articles in FairLady, Sara Callow for "The Pioneers" in Marie Claire, Neil Doveton for "Romancing The Bride" in Pace and Chris Viljoen for "The Champion" in FHM.

There are only two finalists in the running for the Photography category award. They are Pierre Crocquet for "Sackcloth and diamonds" in Sawubona and Johan Wilke for "Pa se Kind" in Sarie.

The Columns category also produced only two finalists: Sue de Groot for the "Single Serving Column" in Femina and Kgafela oa Magogodi for "The Spoken Word Column" in Y.

In the category for Reportage, the finalists are Sean O'Toole for "An Ordinary Day" in SL, Paula Slier for "24 hours in a squatter camp" in Marie Claire and Darren Taylor for various articles in Farmer's Weekly.

The winners will be announced at a prize-giving function on Wednesday 14 May 2003 at the Sandton Hilton. The 15 category winners will each receive a golden Mondi nib trophy, a personal cash prize of R8000 and a framed certificate.