Te Waha Nui wins an Ossie Surfer's Paradise

6 December 2005

Student newspaper Te Waha Nui wins an Ossie Surfer's Paradise

Te Waha Nui, AUT University's journalism newspaper, has won this year's Ossie Award for best student publication in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific * the paper's second prize in a month.

The two-year-old publication won against four finalists from Australia and Fiji. All were print publications, although some included online editions. Judge Wendy Page, producer of ABC TV's Australian Story, said two strong contenders made the judging difficult, but she opted for the "broad appeal" of Te Waha Nui. "It provides good news stories and good features with broad appeal, and is well written," she said.

"It's clearly a huge commitment for student journalists to produce work of this calibre for a fortnightly publication. "I think the standard is equal to, if not better than, many commercial newspapers. "Te Waha Nui is not as glossy as some of the other publications, but the substance of the content won the day for me." Page highly commended a rival contender, The Point, a student-produced inner city community newspaper published by the University of Technology, Sydney.

Last month Te Waha Nui won the NZ Electoral Commission's Wallace Award for political reporting during the general election. The newspaper was edited this semester by journalism student Nicholas Moody and the course is led by AUT's David Robie and Allan Lee.

The Ossie Awards, organised by the Journalism Education Association (JEA) are named after the late Australian foreign correspondent Osmar White. More information about Te Waha Nui is available at www.tewahanui.info

ENDS

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