Meet the winners of the INSP Awards 2015

The winners of the INSP Awards 2015 were announced tonight at a glamorous gala dinner in Seattle University’s Campion Ballroom during the INSPired Together: Global Street Paper Summit.

The packed event celebrated the achievements and innovations of INSP’s 115 street papers, with 12 awards highlighting the best articles, covers, projects and campaigns produced across the international network.

This year, new categories were introduced to recognise the impact of street papers in campaigning, marketing and social enterprise, while existing categories celebrated editorial excellence. Across the board, judges agreed that the standard of work was exceptional.

As the network’s newest street paper, the team behind Mexico’s first street publication, Mi Valedor, were blown away with their award win for Best Design.

“We’re very surprised, especially because we’re two months old! It’s very significant for us to have won this award and to be here with all of you and learn from your experience,” said Maria Portilla, Mi Valedor’s director and editor.

Another young street paper making exceptional breakthrough in the editorial category was The Curbside Chronicle, based in Oklahoma City, which took home the award for Best Cover.

Director Ranya O’Connor said, “We are about two years old so this is just really exciting. We try to make the best quality magazine we can for our vendors. We’re so happy to be here and learn from other street papers that are so well developed.”

Greek street paper Shedia was given special recognition for producing the most popular article across the network. Their exclusive interview with English photographer Levon Biss was republished in Portugal, the USA, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, Germany, Japan and Poland, thanks to the INSP News Service.

“We’re very honoured to receive this award,” said editor in chief Chris Alefantis. “We’re so privileged to be here with this great group of people and the INSP News Service does an amazing job. We use it every month. We’re so happy to contribute because we strive to produce as good a street paper as possible.”

Nota Bene, published in Bratislava, Slovakia, triumphed in the Best Non-Street Paper Project category for its Luggage Porters Enterprise. “This is quite a heavy ball and we have a one month trip in the USA so we will carry it. We will really think of our luggage porters,” joked Zuzana Pohánková when she was handed her glass globe trophy.

An award with slightly less air-miles to travel back to its recipient was the globe for Vendor Writing, which was won by Jennifer Alexander, who sells The Contributor in Nashville, USA. Her story “A Late Dinner With My Son” impressed judges in what was one of the INSP Awards most hotly-contested categories.

Accepting the award of Jennifer’s behalf, assistant editor Linda Bailey said “Jennifer is one of the strongest women I’ve ever known. I know she’d be very grateful to receive this award.”

The ceremony concluded in thunderous applause as founding director and editor of our summit co-host, Real Change, took to the stage to accept the award for Best Campaign. “This award belongs to the entire organisation but most especially it belongs to the Real Change vendors. We work together, we fight together, we win,” he said.

A huge congratulations to all our winners!

Best News Feature

Hinz&Kunzt (Hamburg, Germany)

For “Milano Centrale: a resting stop for refugees” by Jonas Füllner

Best Cultural Feature

The Big Issue (UK)

For “Sir David Attenborough: 88 and still flying high” by Sylvia Patterson

Best Cover

The Curbside Chronicle (Oklahoma City, USA)

For “Live by the gun, die by the gun”

Best Photograph 

The Big Issue South Africa

Taken by Juhan Kuus

Best Design

Mi Valedor (Mexico City)

Best Vendor Contribution

The Contributor (Nashville, USA)

For “A Late Dinner With My Son” by Jennifer Alexander

Special News Service Award 

Shedia (Greece)

For “Soccer through a lens” by Thanos Sarris

Best Non-Street Paper Project

Nota Bene (Slovakia)

For their “Luggage Porters Enterprise”

Best Online Presence

The Big Issue (UK)

Best Technology Innovation

Megaphone (Canada)

For their “Vendor Finder App”

Best Breakthrough

The Contributor (Nashville, USA)

Best Campaign

Real Change (Seattle, USA)

For “OutsideIN”

If you’d like to hear more about the work of street papers, sign up for the INSP news round up here. You can follow all the action from the Global Street Paper Summit by following #INSP2015 

Photos by Cassin Stacy