Editor's Letter (April 9)

Back in February art editor Kevin Pruitt and myself dedicated a chunk of time to putting together an entry for the 2009 Newspaper Awards. While there are loads of different awards for magazines (such as the PPA Magazine Awards) and for journalists, these are the only industry awards that are dedicated to newspaper and news media production, and so they are a rare chance to receive some acknowledgement from our peers. Cage & Aviary Birds has achieved some success at these awards in the past. We won the Special Interest Newspaper of the Year award in 2000, were commended in the Special Interest Newspaper of the Year category in 2003 (the winner was Antiques Trade Gazette) and gained another commendation for Most Outstanding Use of Colour in 2007 (the winner was the Guardian). Last year, we didn’t enter, only because as a new editor I simply overlooked it (too busy trying to grapple with everything else, I suspect), but this year I was determined not to miss out. Thank goodness we made the effort, because last week we discovered that we have been shortlisted for the Most Outstanding Use of Colour – the same category in which we were commended two years ago. We are up against Angling Times, Church Times, Fishing News, Garden News and MCN. The winner will be announced on April 22. Wish us luck! On another topic, it’s interesting to see the subject of the Budgerigar Society’s open show date raise its ugly head again (see the letter from Ray Fox in this week's issue). Funnily enough, the latest issue of The Budgerigar contains a form of proxy for members to have their say on a range of resolutions being decided upon at its upcoming AGM. If the BS can send a form like this with its magazine, why couldn’t it have done the same with its vote for the open show date? Or am I missing something?