One of our goals at BritMums – in addition to helping bloggers learn about SEO and blog platforms and what-not – is to promote excellence in writing. It’s the cornerstone of every good blog. That’s why I was so excited to be a judge for the #eicommentawards run by Editorial Intelligence. The judging process was rigorous (I read something like 120 columns and editorial pages in about a week). But that was nothing to the experience Thursday morning at the breakfast awards ceremony.
The great and good of UK’s commentators were there – hallowed names from the FT, the Mail, the Times, the BBC, the Spectator, the Guardian and many many more. I saw my former Times boss Anne Spackman as well as Times winners Daniel Finkelstein (Political Commentator) and Hugo Rifkind (Columnist of the Year). The number of awards racked up by the Financial Times demonstrated that it is a go-to paper for great commentary.
Several people commented on how few women were shortlisted, which was less a criticism of EI than a comment on the state of editorial comment in the UK and the value placed on women’s voices. There were some notable exceptions. Our friends over at Mumsnet won best online comment site, The Times’s Ann Treneman won for best sketch writing, and Suzanne Moore was shortlisted for Commentariat of the Year, although Matthew d’Ancona took home the prize.
The awards also honoured a non-mainstream media (ie not a newspaper) blogger, naming Sunny Hundal at liberalconspiracy.org as best independent blogger.
The inclusion of an online women’s site was an important marker as was the nod to independent blogging. Next year we’d like to see politically minded BritMums bloggers nominated, making the short list and (dare we dream?) bringing home the gong for Twitter Commentator or Independent Blogger.
You may be a mum or dad, but if you’ve got an opinion about the coalition’s government policies, the situation in Greece, the death of Gaddafi, etc, start blogging about it!
Check out the full list of winners at www.commentawards.com and start updating your reader and Twitter stream. (And can you see a picture of me in my judging group.)
About Jennifer Howze
Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.