JHBLive beat off strong competition from last year's winner www.yworld.co.za (YFM's online venture), www.rage.co.za and www.africasgateway.com.
The Best African COZA awards are run by Amuse Africa, a youth online magazine focusing on promoting kwaito and African hip hop on the web. The awards are based largely on votes from the online public (80%), with Amuse Africa staff also contributing their own votes towards the final awards (20%).
The Web Site of the Year award marks another highlight in the success story that is JHBLive, an online magazine that began life as a creative collective. Today, JHBLive is a fully fledged (and totally independent) publication run by a passionate (and young) team.
"The award is an affirmation for us," says Michael Balkind, JHBLive Managing Director. "So many people have put so much work into the site - it is great to get a stamp of approval form the internet public. It's also a sign that online publications without big corporate money behind them can be successful."
JHBLive is a community based web site that utilises the services and skills of professional and amateur writers and creatives. Apart from the editorial content on the site, JHBLive also offers technology driven services that focus on the city's nightlife, including SMS and email event reminder services.
"When we moved from a simple creative collective to an actual business, we did it because we realised that people were really enjoying being given the opportunity to participate in Joburg culture," says Balkind. "A lot of our contributors are not media professionals – they are people that want to express themselves and the way they view our city and our country. JHBLive is the only place where they get the opportunity to do this."
With a major re-launch of the site scheduled for late 2003, JHBLive looks to have concretised its position as the only South African online magazine that bridges the clear gaps between local entertainment sectors.
"We are not a black site, and we are not a white site," says Balkind. "In many ways we feel we are the glue that binds different cultures together. We cater to pop people, culture vultures, kwaito, hip hop and rock lovers. We have a very active writers section and our features cover all sorts of topics and issues, most of them based around life in Jozi."
If you haven't yet enjoyed the JHBLive experience, log onto www.jhblive.com.
