The Publishing Partnership acknowledged for their remarkable contribution

ALRIC SIMPSON TROPHY 2017 awarded to: The Publishing Partnership for their remarkable effort and contribution since 2004 to the successful production and publication of the NSRI Magazine “SEA RESCUE”. The Award is presented by Chairman Ronnie Stein and CEO Cleeve Robertson to Ryan Manning, Mark Beare, Wendy Maritz and John MorkelThe Alric Simpson Floating Trophy is awarded annually to a person who, or an organisation which, has rendered distinguished service to the NSRI.

The Trophy is sponsored by Mrs Eleanor Simpson and her two sons, who wanted to make up an unusual award named in memory of her sea-loving husband Alric, resulting in the Alric Simpson knot board. This year we honour The Publishing Partnership’s (TPP) remarkable effort and contribution since 2004 to the successful production and publication of the NSRI Magazine “SEA RESCUE”.In 2004 we had 700 volunteers and 20 000 donors, which translated into a print run of 20 000 magazines for the first issue for Winter 2004; 24 pages in size, it was printed in black and white with a colour cover and sponsored by Pertec for the first 3 issues.

By Summer 2005/6, with hard work and focus, advertising had grown to the point where we could afford a full colour edition of the magazine.In 2007, 2009 and 2013 the magazine won the coveted SAPPI PICA award in the category “Best Custom Publication”, an achievement due in no small part to TPP’s production team, innovation and design. TPP publishes our magazine three times a year and does so at no charge as part of their social responsibility programme - no small contribution considering the magazine now boasts a circulation of 87 000, clearly having developed into a publication that is much-loved and anticipated by our readers.

The best indicator of this reader loyalty is the degree to which our readers engage with us, leading to some issues where the readers’ Letters section spans up to seven pages! By 2016, postage for delivery of the magazine to subscribers had become a strategic consideration and TPP came up with the novel idea of shrinking the magazine size by half to save on print, paper and postage, resulting in a substantial annual saving to the NSRI. It is for this important contribution to the ongoing story of the NSRI family that we award The Publishing Partnership this year’s Alric Simpson Trophy, with our particular thanks to Executive Directors Mark Beare and John Morkel and Managing Editor Wendy Maritz, who have made this publication such a success.

We owe The Publishing Partnership a great debt of gratitude for the role they play in telling the stories that are Sea Rescue, for building our brand and for assisting us in connecting with all our stakeholders in such a warm and engaging manner.