The most influential women in media

To coincide with National Women's Day in August, The Media magazine will be dedicating its forthcoming issue to the 10 most influential women in South African media. Over 20 nominations have already been received for the inaugural "Sasol Women in The Media" event, the chief criteria for final selection being outstanding contributions to growth and development across the commercial, governmental, academic and placement spheres of the media industry".

According to The Media's editor, Kevin Bloom: "Although South Africa has an incredibly progressive constitution when it comes to the protection of equal opportunity, women still lag way behind men in terms of the top power positions in media. Looking at the effect some women have had on this industry, not to mention the remarkable drive and talent that we would all agree is out there, it's really not a justifiable scenario. Hopefully, our August issue and the Sasol sponsored event will do something to highlight the concerns."

Bloom points out that this past year has seen women making invaluable contributions to the parliamentary debates around racial transformation in the media value chain, and that these individuals should be given due prominence. There are also, he says, women executives who have steered their media organisations to impressive financial success, women journalists who have won esteemed national awards for their proven courage and dedication to their craft, and women media strategists who have faultlessly led their clients in selection of the most effective communication channels.

Sasol Ltd will be sponsoring a lunch on 29 July 2003 in Sandton where the 10 most remarkable women will be honoured.

Sandra Gordon, The Media's publisher, explains: "The quality of the nominations we have received reinforce the perception I had: that women have played an exceptionally important role in this most influential segment of the South African economy. Our judges have an extremely tough task ahead of them this week in sifting through the motivations and selecting the top 10. Then there is the formidable challenge of agreeing who the most influential woman in the media for 2003 will be."