Magazine industry finally set for unified awards
Australia looks set for the first time have a united awards to represent all aspects of magazine publishing following last week’s announcement of an alliance between specialist organisation Publishers Australia and consumer body Magazine Publishers of Australia.
The announcement was made at the Publishers Australia Excellence Awards on Friday afternoon.
Chariman Geoff Hird told Mumbrella that the agreement will be ratified in February next year, at which point further details will be thrashed out of whether MPA members – including magazine behemoths such as ACP, Pacific Magazines and News Magazines will be able to enter what was previously the Publishers Australia Awards.
Next year sees the awards take place during the new joint initiative between the two organisations of Magazine Week.
The MPA had previously held its own awards, which fizzled out shortly before ACP left the MPA. Last week ACP rejoined. At the time MPA chairman Nick Chan told Mumbrella that relaunching the awards was a possibility with a different judging system.
On Friday Hird said: “Between now and then we’ll work out what shape the awards will take next year and what inclusion the MPA members will have.
“We will make available categories for MPA members that would suit the area that they publish into, but that’s still all to be worked through with the MPA.”
Since the MPA Awards entered, a couple of alternative awards have attempted to find space in the market.
The Maggies saw the public invited to vote on their favourite covers. Although winners were announced for the competition, there was no accompanying ceremony. And AdNews also created a magazine awards, which does not require magazines to put themselves forward for consideration and only looks at audited titles.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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The obituaries segment (to now deceased mags) will grow to a the point where the entire ceremony is taken up with “:And we also bid a fond farewell to…”
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