Deadline: February 28, 2020
Applications for the Sanlam Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism 2020 are now open. The Sanlam Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism have been recognising and rewarding exceptional business journalism since 1974. The awards are the premier financial journalism awards in South Africa and have become a prestigious and hotly contested accolade.
Categories Overview
- Section 1: Category Awards: The category awards are open to journalists working in print, radio, TV, online media. The categories are:
- Business/companies
- Economy
- Financial markets
- Consumer financial education
- African Growth story: The ‘African Growth Story’ category will honour the journalist who best captures the growth story of the African continent. This award is also open to journalists outside of South Africa.
- Section 2: Special Awards: Winners in the special awards category are selected at the discretion of judging panel. The categories are:
- Best Newcomer
- Lifetime Achievement
- Journalist of the year
Award
- The winner of each category receives a prize of R25,000
- The overall winner receives an additional R35,000
- The best newcomer merit award amounts to R20,000
Eligibility
- Any writer or broadcaster may enter a submission on a subject related to business, companies, the economy, financial markets or consumer financial education. For the African Growth Story category, any journalist working for a media vehicle (print, online, TV or radio) that has produced and distributed news on the African continent is eligible. This includes South African reporters.
- Individual journalists can submit one entry per category. Each entry must consist of a minimum of three and maximum of five articles, reports, recordings or transcriptions that have been published or broadcast between January 1 and December 31, 2019.
- Each entry must have its own entry form and must be submitted separately.
- Entries that involve collaboration between journalists are restricted to two writers.
- The same stories cannot be submitted across multiple categories; they can be submitted only for one category. Where applicable, or if necessary, the judging panel, should they so choose, may allocate an entry to what they deem the most relevant category.
- Serialised entries or stories. An entry submitted as a serialised dispatches will be considered as long as the submission adheres to the criteria for submitting a single entry, i.e. minimum of three articles, maximum of five (see Rule 2 above). If they so choose, journalists can select specific articles from the serialised dispatches and submit them with different stories (unrelated to the serialised feature) that they have written, and submit as one entry for the category of their choice.
- With the exception of the African Growth Story category, only stories published or broadcast in South Africa are eligible.
- In terms of the African Growth Story category, any journalist working for a media vehicle (print, online, TV or radio) that has produced and distributed news on the African continent is eligible. This includes South African reporters.
- Stories originally published in a language other than English may be submitted and the organisers will arrange for a translation as part of the judging process.
- Unpublished material will not be accepted.
- The use of pseudonyms is not allowed.
Category Rules
- Each submission may consist of a minimum of three and a maximum of five stories.
- Stories for the category awards are defined as follows:
- An individual print article
- A broadcast segment (television or radio)
- An online article
- An audio podcast or online video
- Each entry should include a motivation of no more than 400 words. The motivation should specifically highlight to the judges the entry’s strengths in terms of: news value, impact, rigour in reporting, analytical value, originality, integrity, specialist knowledge and storytelling (refer to the ‘criteria’ section of this website for more detail).
- All print and online articles must be submitted in a single file, preferably in PDF format.
- A live URL should be provided for all online articles, audio podcasts or online videos.
- Unpublished material will not be accepted.
- All print and online articles should be in a font size that is considered reasonably legible. E.g. if a broadsheet article is reduced to fit onto a PDF it can become illegible. Entrants are requested to give this due consideration during the entry process.
- For broadcast entries, entrants should ideally host their own video or audio elements and provide a working URL to a web page from where the video/ audio can be played. Alternatively, an audio CD or DVD (preferably on a single CD or DVD) can be delivered to: Petra Steenkamp, Group Communications, Sanlam Limited, 2 Strand Road, Bellville.
- Broadcast entries should provide scripts or transcriptions if available – or at least a summary of the content – on each of the different recordings.
- Submitted entries will not be returned.
Judging Criteria
An independent panel of judges – which includes media experts, an academic and an economist – will judge according to the following criteria: news value, impact, rigour in reporting, analytical value, originality, integrity, specialist knowledge and storytelling.
Application
For more information, visit Sanlam Awards.
