By Nangamso Mabindla
14 November 2006

FOCUS on Buffalo City, the magazine, has won best lay out, design and content at the annual Shooting Star Awards in Durban.

Initiated in 1998 by publishers Norma Beyl and Associates, the magazine covers news in the city, ranging from business and health to education, parastatals and housing associations.

Speaking about winning the award, an excited Beyl said that she was happy that the team's hard work was recognised. Beyl was in East London for the Border Kei Chamber of Business Golf Day.

"The competition was very tight; we were up against five star game reserve publications and other interesting publications. When the competition started there were at least a hundred magazines and we managed to be among the 12 finalists. However, beating all those other very good magazines was a great surprise."

Beyl first focused on a conclusive magazine on KwaZulu-Natal, saying: "I found out that when looking for information about the province you struggled because the sectors had different publications. This made it difficult to get information on important sectors like tourism, health, business, education and others."

After coming up with a comprehensive magazine on KwaZulu-Natal, it was inevitable that other areas would follow, and Buffalo City was one of those. "People like Peter Miles saw the KwaZulu-Natal magazine and introduced me to the late Des Halley. He was keen on us producing a magazine for the then East London municipality," Beyl explained.

She immediately fell in love with the city and enjoyed working on the magazine. "What impressed me about this city is the good working relationship between the municipality, the chamber and other stakeholders. They all have the interest of the city at heart. The support we receive is unbelievable."

Turning her attention to Focus on Buffalo City, Beyl said it was a very powerful marketing tool. "It shows the best the city has to offer, and doing it is always a pleasure. It brings [out] the best in me and the people I work with, everything from the pictures to the content; it's all wonderful and I'm so happy that we won the award."

Focus on Buffalo City and other magazines like KwaZulu-Natal Review and Nelson Mandela Bay Review are distributed to chambers of business around the country and some of the country's embassies. Copies are available through the Information on Business website.