Latest Issue (click cover)
Who We Are
The New Zealand WineGrower Team
Now in its 9th year, and publishing bi-monthly, New Zealand WineGrower remains dedicated to its mission to inform and unify the grape growers and winemakers of New Zealand, and to celebrate their development and success.
Editor:
Terry Dunleavy, MBE, FWINZ, JP, came to the wine industry in 1971 as a senior executive for Montana Wines Ltd, from careers first in journalism and later in commercial printing. Appointed Montana’s representative on the New Zealand Wine Council, one of three then existing national wine industry organization, he was soon deeply involved in the lead-up to the formation in 1976 of the single organisation, the Wine Institute of New Zealand Inc, and was appointed its inaugural CEO, a post he held until his retirement in 1991. His time at the helm of the Institute coincided with the consolidation of wine as a flagship New Zealand primary industry and its impressive entry to world export markets. When the Institute decided in 1997 to launch its own official quarterly journal, Terry was invited to become editor. In the 1990 New Year Honours List, he was made MBE for services to the wine industry and the community, and in 1996, was elected a fellow of the Wine Institute. He is chairman of his family’s Te Motu Vineyard, in Onetangi Valley, Waiheke Island.
Email: Tel 0274 836 688
Our Gisborne Correspondent:
Debbie Gregory is Gisborne’s best-known and most widely respected rural affairs journalist. Debbie is a 39-year-old journalist who started with the Gisborne Herald about 18 years ago and completed a two-year journalism cadetship. She then moved to Auckland and worked for the North Shore Times Advertiser for two years before returning to her home town of Gisborne. Debbie has four children and spent 15-years both raising them and doing some freelance writing and working on her small farm at Makauri Gisborne.
Three years ago, when her youngest child was seven, Debbie decided to go back to work full time and got a job back at the Gisborne Herald covering the agricultural round. The wine industry is a big part of Debbie’s work in Gisborne and she follows it with interest. She also has written for a number of New Zealand magazines over the last few years and has had a story published in an American magazine.
Email: Tel 0273 194 300
Our Marlborough Correspondent:
Tessa Nicholson has been involved in media for more than 20 years. Initially she worked in radio as a current affairs announcer and news writer. She went on to be a regular contributor to National Radio, as the Marlborough correspondent on Wayne Mowat’s afternoon show. Nine years ago she joined the Marlborough Express newspaper and was the wine industry reporter for the next six years. Currently she is the editor of Winepress, the official magazine of Marlborough Winegrowers.
Email: Tel 021 709 571
Our Hawkes Bay Correspondent:
For Mary Shanahan, wine and design are twin passions. Wine reporter for Hawke’s Bay Today for the past nine years, Mary began her journalism career in 1970, working for Suburban Newspapers in Auckland. In between stints at Wellington’s Evening Post – one as civic reporter in the heady days of Michael Fowler’s mayoralty – she was employed writing trade publications in London.
Then came a switch to public relations with a glamorous but challenging job at the New Zealand Wool Board.
Marrying Napier-based architect Richard Weston, Mary moved to Hawke’s Bay in 1979: "People were forever telling me it was the best place in New Zealand to raise a family."
Freelance work – for the Wool Board and design magazines – was slotted around child-raising. She was lured back to newspapers in 1994.
"I was lucky enough to get the wine round in 1997, leading into that very fabulous vintage for Hawke’s Bay reds. Hearing the clink of yet another bottle going into our wine cellar, my husband would say we couldn’t afford for me to have the job. I told him he’d thank me, and he has – every time we open a 1998."
Email: Tel 027 339 8842
Advertising Manager:
Ros Sellers came to newspaper advertising by way of the Waikato Times, later joining Horticulture News. In 2000, Ros started NZ Grapegrower magazine for an Australian publishing firm for whom she arranged the advertising. When Rural News Group of New Zealand became publishers of New Zealand WineGrower, Ros joined this magazine, and has greatly boosted its advertising sales. In her earlier life, Ros had brief experience in viticulture, working with Robin Dicey, now of Central Otago, and recalls her first pruning and harvesting experiences in the Morton Estate vineyard at Katikati.
Email: Tel 021 190 3877
Rural News Group Management
Managing Editor:
Adam Fricker milked cows, grew sandersonias, and graduated from Waikato University with a B.Sc before completing a journalism diploma and going to work for Rural News in 1998. He is now managing editor for Rural News Group’s agricultural titles and New Zealand Geographic.
Production Manager:
Dave Ferguson has had over 28 years experience in typography and layout at the now defunct Auckland Star, where he first switched from hot type tocomputers. For the Rural News Group, Dave is responsible for the pagination, layout, in-house composition of advertisements and the handling of all digital files received by the group. He has been with Rural News Group for 11 years, and production for the last seven. In his spare time, Dave is a rugby referee, and is in charge of tutoring all new referees for the Auckland Rugby Referees Association.
Owner and Publisher:
Brian Hight was originally a dairy farmer in Waitoa in Waikato. He came to Auckland in the early 1970s, and sold advertising for print publications. In 1972, he started the first free circulation rural newspaper, Farm Equipment News. He started other publications which he sold out in the mid 80s. In 1989, Brian launched Rural News, adding Dairying Today in 1998, and the website in 2002. Last year, New Zealand Geographic magazine was added to the group, which recently entered into a contract with New Zealand Winegrowers to become publisher of this magazine.
