Promasidor Nigeria Limited, makers of Cowbell Milk, organisers of the prestigious Promasidor Quill Awards has said the stage is set for qualified journalists to submit their entries for the 2016 edition of the awards.
Speaking on Thursday at the Media Briefing held on the annual awards, Mr. Olivier Thiry, Managing Director, Promasidor Nigeria Limited said the company has started accepting applications from qualified journalists for the different categories of the Quill Awards.
His words: “It is my pleasure to inform you today that the stage is now set for you to submit your application for any of the Categories of the Quill Awards.”
Under the Quill Awards last year, applicants had the following categories to contest for: Education Reporter of the Year; Best CSR & Industry Report of the Year; Best Report on Children; Future Writer of the Year; Best Photo Story of the Year; Best Report on Nutrition and Brand Advocate of the Year.
Meanwhile, Thiry said the Best Report on Children and Best Report on Nutrition have been merged this year; while Promasidor introduced a new category, Online Reporter of the Year.
According to him, the new category was introduced due to the steady increase in the interest shown in the Quill Awards by journalists in Nigeria and the steady rise of new media. This brings the different categories of the Awards journalists can apply for during the 2015-2016 session to seven.
Also speaking at the Briefing, Mr. Andrew Enahoro Head, Legal/Public Relations, Promasidor; explained that in order to give equal access to all qualified journalists notwithstanding their locations in the country, Promasidor accepts applications online. He therefore advised prospective applicants to visit the link: https://quillawards.promasidor-ng.com to upload their entries.
He stated that only stories published between May 1st, 2015 and April 14th, 2016 are qualified for entry for the 2016 edition.
Enahoro advised prospective applicants to specify clearly the award category entered for when filling the online form. He emphasised that Awards for all categories will be based on Creativity, Accuracy of Facts, Educational Value, In-depth of Research and Analysis, Quality of Information and Newsworthiness.
“Again, all supporting documents attached to your entry must be presented in two formats – the scanned copy of the published article and Microsoft Word Document format of the original material. The first is to prove that it was published while the second is to enable legibility during assessment by judges”, he stated.
Enahoro explained that for each of the categories, there will be a prime winner. He added that winners from each of the categories with the exception of the winner of the Best Photo Story of the Year will be given iPads while the winner of the Best Photo Story of the Year will be gifted with a high-end camera. Winners will also receive supplies of Promasidor Products.
He also disclosed that the overall winner of all categories will proceed on a four-week certificate course in Journalism at the highly-acclaimed Thompson Foundation in the United Kingdom with a one week work placement in a prominent British news organisation.