All the Telkom - Classic Business journo award winners

Finweek and Fin24 journalist Marc Ashton was crowned 'Journalist of the Year' at the second annual 2011 Telkom - Classic Business awards yesterday, Wednesday, 6 April 2011. Last year, the title was won by Rob Rose of the Sunday Times.

Ashton (@zamarcashton) was commended by the judges for his authoritative coverage of the small business sector and also for an analysis of the technology interests of business tycoon Johann Rupert. He also won a sectoral award for his coverage of small business.

Techcentral founder and editor Duncan McLeod (@mcleodd) won the ICT category for a series of columns published on Techcentral and in the Financial Mail (FM), and FM's Larry Claasen was joint winner in personal finance and money category for his reporting on IT in the Cape, alongside Finweek's Vic de Klerk for reporting on Sharemax.

FM's Stephen Cranston won in the Companies sector, while Claire Bisseker won the award in the Broader Economy sector for an article in FM on private health care. Monthly awards were also given out.

All the winners

CategoryName and publication
Overall winner: Marc Ashton, Finweek/Fin24
Small and Medium EnterpriseMarc Ashton, Fin24
ICTDuncan McLeod, TechCentral/Financial Mail
Personal Finance (MoneyLarry Claasen, Financial Mail and Vic de Klerk, Finweek
CompaniesStephen Cranston, Financial Mail
The Broader EconomyClaire Bisseker, Financial Mail
Monthly: May 2010Marc Ashton, Fin24
Monthly: June 2010Stafford Thomas, Financial Mail
Monthly: July 2010Thabiso Mochiko, Business Day
Monthly: August 2010Vic de Klerk, Finweek
Monthly: September 2010Stuart Theobold, Warren Dick and Jotham Makarudze, Investors Monthly
Monthly: October 2010Troye Lund, Finweek
Monthly: November 2010Sasha Planting, Financial Mail
Monthly: December 2010Stephen Cranston, Financial Mail
Monthly: January 2011Bruce Cameron and Neesa Moodely-Isaacs, Personal Finance
Monthly: February 2011Marc Ashton, Finweek

Ashton received a trophy and R75 000 at the ceremony in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, presented by Telkom CEO Pinky Moholi and National Consumer Commissioner Mamodupi Moholi at the ceremony in Hyde Park.

"The Journalist of the Year awards are unique to South Africa in that entries do not need to be submitted, but are selected from published financial writing in print and on the Internet," said awards convenor and Classic Business anchor John Fraser.

Judges were Chris Gilmour from Absa Investments, Jeremy Sampson from Interbrand Sampson (now the Interbrand Sampson Group) and Simon Brown from JustOneLap.com.

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