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The Bookseller's Black Issue has been named Content Piece of the Year at the Independent Publisher Awards, held last Friday (26th November), run by the Professional Publishers Association.
The issue, published in April this year, was guest edited by Marianne Tatepo, founder of the Black Agents & Editors’ Group (BAE) and commissioning editor for Ebury Press and Pop Press at Penguin Random House (PRH). It was the first time a guest editor had taken the helm of the weekly trade magazine.
Judges said they "were so impressed by how this piece broadened the conversation around diversity and inclusion, displaying editorial brilliance which resulted in high levels of engagement and impressive reading stats". They added that The Bookseller had taken action to address inequalities in the publishing industry using its platform to "advance this important topic".
Tatepo said: "A lot of care, thought and work went into bringing The Black Issue to life. We at BAE have been pleased to see publishers' diversity and inclusion plans accelerated through important initiatives such as PRH's Next Editors Programme for commissioning editors, Hachette's new secondary education digital work experience, and Macmillan's Future in Freelancing training programme. We have also been impressed with The Bookseller's introduction of a Discover Preview section, spotlighting marginalised talent and written monthly by Black Issue star previewer, Natasha Onwuemezi.
"We hope that the issue will be used to inform how these initiatives are executed, to benefit those who need it most. As well as these tangible results and mentality shifts, the wide readership of the issue and this award win are testament to the level of editorial craft and originality of each single piece—from Afrofuturism to the dearth of Black male readers and writers—and its authors: Paula Akpan, Alexandra Sheppard, Lenny Henry, Kadish Morris, Rochelle Dowden-Lord, Bengono Bessala, Kadija Sesay, Jasmine Richards, Elijah Lawal and Theophina Gabriel. We're thrilled to have this immortalised in the shape of a Content Piece of the Year award."
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, added: "We are delighted that the first of these guest issues has been recognised against its peers in the content business, and huge congratulations to Marianne, her writing team and my colleagues at The Bookseller. The Black Issue was a success in its own right, but also stands as a beacon for change at a moment when the job is very much not yet done. We look forward to building on our guest issue programme for 2022, including with the introduction of a Youth Issue in August, along with the return of the Black Issue, the LGBTQ+ Issue and the Disability Issue."
The Black Issue was up against "The Making of Steve McQueen's Le Mans movie" published by Magneto magazine, "Rebuilding Shattered Lives" from the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, and "myHermes compensates retailers for missing parcels following system ‘glitch’" published by Retail Express.
The Bookseller's sister magazine the Stage was also successful at the awards: its inaugural Future of Theatre conference won Event of the Year, while joint lead critic Tim Bano won Writer of the Year.