Not just a color nor fruit

I am very saddened by the fact that Orange is to end its sponsorship of the prize, set up in 1996 after anger in the publishing industry over the 1991 all-male Booker shortlist.
Jill, what will we do in July?

Nothing yet. Will wait to see what the name eventually will be.....

Jill, so you expect someone to step up to the plate and take over The Orange Prize? I certainly hope so, because some of the best books I have read have been Oranges. I was so shocked to read the announcement!

From what I understand, the money is still there for the prize (it's anonymously donated, I think I read). They just have to find another sponsor for the name and the promotion of it all. No big, but it is a shame to lose the "Orangeness" of it all! :)

I followed the hubbub on the interwebs & twitter yesterday. Although there are some predicting the demise of the prize, I am more optimistic. As Tania said, the prize has substantial private funding which I guess puts less burden on a prospective sponsor.

Jill posted these thoughts on the OJJ Facebook Page this morning -- I agree with her!
1) I am confident the award will live on - just under a new name
2) I am confident this is just a bump in the road for the Orange Prize, and it will emerge better on the other side of it.
3) I think it's sad that Orange dropped its sponsorship to focus on the film industry (which makes more money).
4) I don't know how this will affect the name of our project, but our project will continue!

In the Virago Group people are bemoaning the sponsor change because we've come to associate the color orange with the prize. I agree with that, and it's an interesting point for the prize to consider, depending on who the new sponsor is. Can they keep the orange color in their branding materials?

Those are all very valid points and bumps in the road we can handle.
I would like to hope that they do keep the Orange color in their materials Laura. We all need our Vitamin C.

I would assume they could keep the color orange - just remove all mentions of the Orange sponsorship. Of course, depending on the new sponsor, they could keep the name "Orange Prize" because it's been branded that way for so long - or add the new sponsors name to Orange Prize - something like, The BMW Orange Prize for Fiction.

The marketing geek in me is very intrigued about how this will play out.

I suspect Orange Broadband will have some say in whether or not the prize can still incorporate the orangeness in the name and materials. Although it could be argued that orange is "just a colour," the company may expect the prize to completely disassociate themselves from the Orange Broadband connection.

From yesterday's Telegraph:

Apple to squeeze out Orange as new backer of fiction award

This seems to be more speculative than definite, though.