From Financial Services to Columnist with News24

2007-06-14 10:56

36-year old financial services employee, Lynn Dike has won the News24 Craft your Column competition.

Based in Johannesburg's Northern suburbs, Dike beat 150 other contestants and more than 400 quality submissions to receive a paid six-month column-writing contract from News24, consistently South Africa's most visited Internet site according to the Online Publishing Association's latest rankings.

News24 editor, Jannie Momberg says the competition was designed to shine the spotlight on its newly-launched my.news24 offering which encourages News24 visitors to publish their own content. ?The launch of the my.news24 section in May has given our users a dedicated area to have their content published. The Craft your Column competition has given this area a tremendous boost," said Momberg.

The competition was judged by well-known News24 columnists including Jon Qwelane, Marianne Thamm, Chris Roper and Jannie Momberg.

"We completely underestimated the interest this competition would generate. Selecting a winner therefore wasn't as easy as we anticipated since response was excellent and the quality of writing superb," continues Momberg.

"I've always said, eventually, I'll write a book. Winning this competition is step one on my path of starting to do what I actually want to do!" says Dike about her win.

With her first column due on News24 Wednesday 13 June, Lynn says she is still not sure what her first column will be about yet, but she plans to focus on, "All those tiny idiosyncratic things unique to this country. I think SA is such a strange place with so many funny things that happen every day. People are going to like my columns and people are going hate them. Criticism doesn't bother me in the least," says Dike.

"I think it is fantastic that my.news24 is giving our readers the opportunity to voice their opinions on our colourful society in a constructive and meaningful manner. The rapid growth of users in this section as well as active commenting vindicates that we are giving our audience more of what they want," says News24 publisher, Elan Lohmann.

My.news24 is available at my.news24 or via the News24 website.

News24 online at www.news24.com, on DStv Channel 59 and on mobile at m.24.com

- News24