What started off as a “sideline” project at the Zoutpansberger a few years ago, has now received international recognition.

The AdBooker system that was locally developed is one of the winners of the African News Innovation Challenge (ANIC).

The names of the 20 winners in the competition were announced last week during the African Editors’ Forum’s annual general meeting held in Rwanda. The competition boasts a total of $1 million in funding and technical support to the digital journalism projects.  ANIC is the largest fund for digital journalism experimentation in Africa and is designed to encourage the finding of solutions to the business, distribution and workplace challenges that face the media industry.

A jury of 15 international media strategists, technology innovators, and funding experts evaluated more than 500 project plans before selecting winners from a shortlist of 40 projects.

“Africa’s media face serious challenges, and each of our winners tries to solve a real-world problem that journalists are grappling with. This includes the public’s growing concern about the manipulation and accuracy of online content, plus concerns around the security of communications and of whistle-blowers or journalistic sources,” says Justin Arenstein, who manages ANIC as part of a wider digital innovation program with Africa’s largest association of media owners and operators, the African Media Initiative (AMI).

Winning projects will receive cash grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, plus additional technological support from a team of four full-time developers at AMI’s jAccelerator lab in Kenya, and business development support from some of the world’s top media strategists affiliated with the World Association of Newspapers & News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

“ANIC believes that all projects have the potential to either be replicated by media elsewhere in Africa, or to be scaled up across the continent, to create wide and sustained impact,” says Justin.

Peter Barron, Google’s Director of External Relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said: “We want to see journalism flourish in the digital age in Africa and the African News Innovation Challenge has helped spur some really exciting projects from across the continent. We’re looking forward to seeing these projects unfold and to working further with African journalists who are using technologies to gather and tell important stories.”

ANIC’s founding partners include Google, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

The local project, AdBooker, started off in 2004 when Zoutnet, publishers of the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror, realised the need for a centralised booking system for adverts appearing in the newspapers. Their web developer, William Stam, was tasked to develop such a system. Much against the trends of that time, he developed a web-based application. This had the advantage of being accessible via the Internet on almost any platform.

Since 2004, the AdBooker system has been implemented in a number of newsrooms countrywide and proved to be a trusted tool for newspaper managers. In 2012, the system was completely redeveloped and the latest software programming technology was used to make it even more robust, with added features. The revamped AdBooker was entered as a project in the African News Innovation Challenge (ANIC).

The next step would be to make it available to more publishers, especially the smaller independent newspapers throughout southern Africa.

"This is also why we are so delighted with the ANIC award,” says Anton van Zyl, manager of Zoutnet. “Our biggest challenge is to set up a research and design team that can do further technology development for small publishers. We need to secure the future sustainability of such a team, because independent publishers cannot be left behind insofar as development is concerned.”