Terry McDonell
Encyclopedia
Robert Terry McDonell is the editor
of the Time Inc. Sports Group. McDonell directs all editorial content and operations of the weekly magazine Sports Illustrated
, SI.com, GOLF Magazine
and GOLF.com, as well as SI Kids, FanNation.com and international editions including SI China, SI South Africa, SI India and others.
, the son of Irma Sophronia (née Nelson) and Robert Meynard McDonell.
He is an editor, writer and publishing executive with broad experience in a variety of media. He was named to his current position in October 2006. He was hired as the 8th Managing Editor
of Sports Illustrated in February 2002.
Under his leadership, SI Digital’s net revenues jumped 180% in 2006 and 587% over the past three years. That robust digital growth along with strong newsstand sales and all-time high reader satisfaction scores for the weekly were among the reasons McDonell was recently named one of Sports Business Journal’s 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business and a member of Adweek
’s Magazine Executive Team of the Year. From 1999 to 2002, McDonell was vice president of Wenner Media and editor-in-chief of Us, which he converted from a monthly to a weekly in March 2000. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Men's Journal
from 1997 to 2000. He came to Men's Journal from the Hearst Corporation’s Sports Afield
, where he served as editor-in-chief and publisher from 1994 to 1997. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Esquire
from 1990 to 1993. In 1985, he founded Smart, a men’s lifestyle magazine, and served as both president and editor-in-chief. Before launching Smart, he was an assistant managing editor of Newsweek from 1983 to 1985. From 1981 to 1983, he was managing editor of Rolling Stone. McDonell was a founding editor of both Outside (1978) and Rocky Mountain (1980) magazines.
McDonell is also a novelist (California Bloodstock) and screenwriter (his credits include Miami Vice and China Beach). He also wrote the video game Night Trap and hosted the television show Last Call produced by Brandon Tartikoff
and MCA. In addition, McDonell serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Paris Review
Foundation.
McDonell attended the University of California, Berkeley
and graduated from the University of California, Irvine
in 1968. He lives in Manhattan
with his wife. With his first wife, Joan Raffeld, he is the father of novelist Nick McDonell
and actor Thomas McDonell
.
• Sports Illustrated (Managing Editor, 2002–2005)
• Us Weekly
(Editor-in-Chief, 1999–2002)
• Wenner Media (Vice President, 1999–2002)
• Men's Journal (Editor, 1996–1999)
• Sports Afield (Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, 1993–1996)
• Esquire (Editor-in-Chief, 1990–1993)
• Smart (Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, 1984–1989)
• Manhattan Inc. (Consulting Editor, 1986–1987)
• Newsweek
(Assistant Managing Editor, 1983–1984)
• Rolling Stone
(Managing Editor, 1981–1983)
• Rocky Mountain (Editor-in-Chief, 1979–1980)
• Outside (Managing Editor, 1977–1979)
• City (Associate Editor, 1976–1977)
• Lust, Violence, Sin, Magic: Sixty Years of Esquire Fiction
• Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing (introduction, 2003)
• Hot Shots: 21st Century Sports Photography (forward, 2006)
• Athlete by Walter Iooss
(introduction, 2008)
• Slide Show by Steve Hoffman (introduction, 2009)
• Sports Illustrated: The Covers (introduction, 2010)
(1981) appeared as himself
• Miami Vice
(1985; 1988) screenwriter
• China Beach
(1988) screenwriter
• Last Call (1994) host
• Breakfast with Hunter (2003) appeared as himself
• Sports Illustrated 40th Anniversary Special: American Beauty (2004) executive producer
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search (2005) executive producer
• Sports Illustrated Smimsuit Special (2006–2009)executive producer
• Night Trap (1992) screenwriter
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
of the Time Inc. Sports Group. McDonell directs all editorial content and operations of the weekly magazine Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, SI.com, GOLF Magazine
Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine is a monthly golf magazine owned by Time Inc.. It was started in 1960 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was the world's most widely read golf publication from August 2006 to January 2007. The magazine is...
and GOLF.com, as well as SI Kids, FanNation.com and international editions including SI China, SI South Africa, SI India and others.
Life and career
McDonell was born in Norfolk, VirginiaNorfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, the son of Irma Sophronia (née Nelson) and Robert Meynard McDonell.
He is an editor, writer and publishing executive with broad experience in a variety of media. He was named to his current position in October 2006. He was hired as the 8th Managing Editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
of Sports Illustrated in February 2002.
Under his leadership, SI Digital’s net revenues jumped 180% in 2006 and 587% over the past three years. That robust digital growth along with strong newsstand sales and all-time high reader satisfaction scores for the weekly were among the reasons McDonell was recently named one of Sports Business Journal’s 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business and a member of Adweek
Adweek
Adweek is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1978....
’s Magazine Executive Team of the Year. From 1999 to 2002, McDonell was vice president of Wenner Media and editor-in-chief of Us, which he converted from a monthly to a weekly in March 2000. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Men's Journal
Men's Journal
Men's Journal is an American men's lifestyle magazine focused on outdoor recreation and comprising editorials on the outdoors, environmental issues, health and fitness, style and fashion, and "gear". It is owned by Jann Wenner of Wenner Media....
from 1997 to 2000. He came to Men's Journal from the Hearst Corporation’s Sports Afield
Sports Afield
Sports Afield was founded in 1887 as a hunting and fishing magazine by Claude King and is the oldest continuous outdoor publication in North America. The first issue, in January 1888, was eight pages long and printed on newspaper stock, published in Denver, Colorado...
, where he served as editor-in-chief and publisher from 1994 to 1997. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
from 1990 to 1993. In 1985, he founded Smart, a men’s lifestyle magazine, and served as both president and editor-in-chief. Before launching Smart, he was an assistant managing editor of Newsweek from 1983 to 1985. From 1981 to 1983, he was managing editor of Rolling Stone. McDonell was a founding editor of both Outside (1978) and Rocky Mountain (1980) magazines.
McDonell is also a novelist (California Bloodstock) and screenwriter (his credits include Miami Vice and China Beach). He also wrote the video game Night Trap and hosted the television show Last Call produced by Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
and MCA. In addition, McDonell serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Paris Review
Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
Foundation.
McDonell attended the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and graduated from the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
in 1968. He lives in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
with his wife. With his first wife, Joan Raffeld, he is the father of novelist Nick McDonell
Nick McDonell
Robert Nicholas "Nick" McDonell is an American writer.-Personal life:McDonell was born in Manhattan, New York. His mother, Joan, is a writer, and his father, Terry McDonell, is managing editor of Sports Illustrated. His brother is actor Thomas McDonell. His father was once managing editor of...
and actor Thomas McDonell
Thomas McDonell
Thomas McDonell is an American actor, musician, and artist. He appeared in The Forbidden Kingdom with Jet Li, and in Twelve, starring Chace Crawford. McDonell played the main role in 2011 teenage film Prom as Jesse Richter, alongside Aimee Teegarden...
.
Magazines
• Time Inc. Sports Group (Editor, 2005 – present)• Sports Illustrated (Managing Editor, 2002–2005)
• Us Weekly
Us Weekly
Us Weekly is a celebrity gossip magazine, founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication covers topics ranging from celebrity relationships to the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and entertainment...
(Editor-in-Chief, 1999–2002)
• Wenner Media (Vice President, 1999–2002)
• Men's Journal (Editor, 1996–1999)
• Sports Afield (Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, 1993–1996)
• Esquire (Editor-in-Chief, 1990–1993)
• Smart (Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, 1984–1989)
• Manhattan Inc. (Consulting Editor, 1986–1987)
• Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
(Assistant Managing Editor, 1983–1984)
• Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
(Managing Editor, 1981–1983)
• Rocky Mountain (Editor-in-Chief, 1979–1980)
• Outside (Managing Editor, 1977–1979)
• City (Associate Editor, 1976–1977)
Books, anthologies
• California Bloodstock (author, 1980)• Lust, Violence, Sin, Magic: Sixty Years of Esquire Fiction
• Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing (introduction, 2003)
• Hot Shots: 21st Century Sports Photography (forward, 2006)
• Athlete by Walter Iooss
Walter Iooss
Walter Iooss Jr. is a professional photographer.He is best known for his work with Sports Illustrated magazine, which has featured his photos on its cover several times and for his portraits of famous athletes such as Michael Jordan, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Jr....
(introduction, 2008)
• Slide Show by Steve Hoffman (introduction, 2009)
• Sports Illustrated: The Covers (introduction, 2010)
Television, film, video games
• Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(1981) appeared as himself
• Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
(1985; 1988) screenwriter
• China Beach
China Beach
China Beach is an American dramatic television series set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. The title refers to My Khe beach in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam, which was nicknamed "China Beach" by unknown foreigners, most likely Americans...
(1988) screenwriter
• Last Call (1994) host
• Breakfast with Hunter (2003) appeared as himself
• Sports Illustrated 40th Anniversary Special: American Beauty (2004) executive producer
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search (2005) executive producer
• Sports Illustrated Smimsuit Special (2006–2009)executive producer
• Night Trap (1992) screenwriter
External links
- “Sports Illustrated Is Expected to Get an Outsider as Editor,” The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. By David CarrDavid CarrDavid Duke Carr is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Houston Texans first overall in the 2002 NFL Draft...
. February 5, 2002. - “A Mr. Fix-It For Sports Illustrated,” Media Life Magazine. By Carl BialikCarl BialikCarl Bialik is an American journalist, best known for his work for The Wall Street Journal's web site, and the paper itself. He is also a co-founder of the growing online-only Gelf Magazine....
. February, 2002. - “Terry McDonell is Mr. Fix-It, But Can He Fix Wenner’s Folly?” Media Life Magazine. By Maureen Garry. September, 1999.