Grapevine, one of New Zealand’s favourite family magazines, spent 2011 celebrating 30 years of publication and founder John Cooney is looking forward to a bright future.

“There were just a few of us back then, young and full of energy, dreaming of changing the world. And we’d come up with this mad crazy plan — a family magazine — filling it with life and fun and hopeful ideas, printing truckloads of copies, and delivering them free to every home in Auckland,” he recalls.

“I mean, who in their right mind would attempt to give away quarter-of-a-million magazines — no charge — and not just once, but month after month after month? However, we were young and bold and passionate. And the more people said ‘No, this can’t possibly succeed…’ the more we determined we were to prove them wrong.”

Mr Cooney says the magazine has never tried to be an evangelistic tract. “Our model has always been Jesus’ instruction to be the salt of the earth. Salt adds flavour. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. There’s nothing worse than a meal where the salt is overpowering, or where the salt is missing,” he said.

Mr Cooney says all the hard work over the years has been worth it. “The stand-out story was a letter we got one day from a lady in Dannevirke. She told us she had been experiencing depression for a long time and really didn’t believe life was worth living- and was seriously considering taking her life. She happened to go out to the woodshed of the place she was renting, and there on a pile of old dusty magazines was an old copy of Grapevine on depression. She sat down and read it from cover-to-cover and told us it had saved her life,” he recalls.

Mr Cooney says it’s not clear how the digital age will affect the magazine’s future, but is convinced there is still a place for a print magazine “that is delivered to people’s homes, which can sit beside their bed, or on the back of the loo”.

Mr Cooney says he still loves the work and has no plans to retire, although son Mike is taking a more prominent role “and the day will come when he kicks me out and tells me to go and eat grass”.

A book of the best of 30 years of Grapevine is currently being compiled.

Grapevine is a not-for-profit charity. It is entirely funded by supporters, and receives no Government or corporate assistance.

By Aaron Ironside