Terry McDonell

McDonell was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the son of Irma Sophronia (née Nelson) and Robert Meynard McDonell.{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Curt |title=Who's who in U.S. writers, editors & poets, Volume 1 |date=1988 |publisher=December Press |isbn=0913204218}}

McDonell attended the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated from the University of California, Irvine.

McDonell served as editor of Time Inc. Sports Group from 2006 to 2012.

As Editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group, McDonell directed all editorial content and operations of the weekly magazine Sports Illustrated, SI.com,{{cite web |title=sportsillustrated.cnn.com |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815054404/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 15, 2000 |access-date=2013-06-27 |publisher=sportsillustrated.cnn.com}} GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com,[http://golf.com golf.com] as well as SI Kids, FanNation.com,{{cite web |title=fannation.com |url=http://www.fannation.com |access-date=2013-06-27 |publisher=fannation.com}} and international editions including SI China, SI South Africa, and SI India.

He was hired as SI's 8th Managing Editor of Sports Illustrated in February 2002. Under his leadership, SI Digital's net revenues jumped 180% in 2006 and 587% over three years.[http://www.foliomag.com/2007/terry-mcdonell “Terry McDonell,”] Folio Magazine. April 2, 2007. That digital growth along with newsstand sales and reader satisfaction scores for the weekly were among the reasons McDonell was named one of Sports Business Journal’s 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business in 2007[http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.preview&articleID=57554 “How They Stack Up,”] Sports Business Journal. December 17, 2007. and a member of Adweek’s Magazine Executive Team of the Year.[http://www.adweek.com/aw/esearch/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003553492 “Special Report: A Winning Doubleheader,”] Adweek. March 5, 2007.[http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine_awards/searchable_database/index.aspx National Magazine Awards Database] Magazine Publishers of America

In 2009, McDonell created the first magazine for the iPad.{{Cite news |date=2010-10-21 |title=It's no Newsweek for Terry McDonell |url=https://nypost.com/2010/10/21/its-no-newsweek-for-terry-mcdonell/ |access-date=2022-11-01 |newspaper=New York Post |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Carr |first=David |date=2010-02-01 |title=To Deliver, iPad Needs Media Deals |language=en-US |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/media/01carr.html |access-date=2022-11-01 |issn=0362-4331}}

Before moving to SI, McDonell led the conversion of Wenner Media's US Magazine to US Weekly.{{Cite news |last=Carr |first=David |date=2002-02-05 |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Sports Illustrated Is Expected to Get an Outsider as Editor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/05/business/the-media-business-sports-illustrated-is-expected-to-get-an-outsider-as-editor.html |access-date=2022-11-01 |issn=0362-4331}} He came to Wenner Media to edit Men's Journal, and had also worked at Wenner, launching Outside Magazine in 1977, and editing Rolling Stone in the early 1980s.{{Cite news |last=Carr |first=David |date=2002-02-05 |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Sports Illustrated Is Expected to Get an Outsider as Editor |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/05/business/the-media-business-sports-illustrated-is-expected-to-get-an-outsider-as-editor.html |access-date=2022-11-01 |issn=0362-4331}} He left Rolling Stone for Newsweek (1983–85), where he was an AME and also created Newsweek Access ("The Magazine of Life and Technology").{{Cite news |last=Zito |first=Tom |date=2011-10-06 |title=Steve Jobs: 1984 Access Magazine Interview |language=en |work=The Daily Beast |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-1984-access-magazine-interview |access-date=2022-11-03}}{{Cite news |last=Carr |first=David |date=2002-02-05 |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Sports Illustrated Is Expected to Get an Outsider as Editor |language=en-US |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/05/business/the-media-business-sports-illustrated-is-expected-to-get-an-outsider-as-editor.html |access-date=2022-11-01 |issn=0362-4331}}

McDonell was the founding editor of both Rocky Mountain Magazine (1979) and SMART (1984-90) magazines.[https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Life-Editors-Writing-Writers/dp/1101946717 “The Accidental Life: An Editor's Notes on Writing and Writers,”] Amazon.

As the editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine from 1990 to 1993, McDonell also launched Esquire Sportsman and Esquire Gentleman. After Esquire, he was editor-in-chief and publisher of Sports Afield, which he relaunched as an upscale hunting and fishing magazine.{{Cite web |title=Terry Mcdonell Elected to Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame |url=https://www.asme.media/terry-mcdonell-elected-to-magazine-editors--hall-of-fame |access-date=2022-11-02 |website=www.asme.media}}

McDonell's magazines have been nominated for 29 National Magazine Awards and received the award in 2003, 2005 and 2010.

In 2012, McDonell was inducted into the ASME Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |title=TERRY MCDONELL ELECTED TO MAGAZINE EDITORS' HALL OF FAME |url=https://www.asme.media/terry-mcdonell-elected-to-magazine-editors--hall-of-fame |access-date=2022-10-25 |website=www.asme.media}}{{Cite web |title=Tribute Video for Terry McDonell, Time Inc. Sports Group Editor {{!}} Sports Illustrated |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eohPc407KGM |language=en |access-date=2022-11-02}}

McDonell is also a novelist (California Bloodstock) and a poet (Wyoming: The Lost Poems{{Cite web |title=Wyoming: The Lost Poems |url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/15210888-wyoming-the-lost-poems |access-date=2022-11-02 |website=Goodreads |language=en}}). His memoir, The Accidental Life: An Editor's Notes on Writing and Writers was published by Knopf in 2016.{{Cite news |last=Garner |first=Dwight |date=2016-07-19 |title=Review: In 'The Accidental Life,' Golfing on LSD Is Just Part of an Editor's Job |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/books/review-terry-mcdonells-the-accidental-life-an-editors-rollicking-magazine-memoir.html |access-date=2022-11-02 |issn=0362-4331}} A second memoir, I[https://bookshop.org/p/books/irma-the-education-of-a-mother-s-son-terry-mcdonell/18729326?aid=91821&ean=9780063277977&listref=mcdonell-books rma: The education of a Mother's Son], was published by HarperCollins in 2023. He also wrote the video game Night Trap.[http://www.mobygames.com/game/night-trap “Night Trap”] at Moby Games

As a screenwriter he wrote for Miami Vice (episodes "Back in the World" and "Over the Line"); and China Beach (episode "Waiting for Beckett").{{cite web |title=Terry McDonell - IMDb |website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1909652/ |access-date=2020-10-16}}

McDonell appeared as himself on Saturday Night Live ("Prose and Cons") in 1981;{{Cite web |date=2018-10-08 |title=SNL Transcripts: 10/03/81: "Prose and Cons" - SNL Transcripts Tonight |url=https://snltranscripts.jt.org/81/81aprose.phtml |access-date=2022-11-02 |language=en-US}} and hosted the television talk show Last Call produced by Brandon Tartikoff and MCA ((19904-95).[https://ew.com/article/1994/10/07/tv-show-review-last-call/ “‘Call’ Grating,”] Entertainment Weekly.

McDonell serves as president of the board of directors of The Paris Review Foundation.{{cite web |date=2007-03-28 |title=The Elegant Variation: Plimpton Prize |url=http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2007/03/plimpton_prize.html |access-date=2013-06-27 |publisher=Marksarvas.blogs.com}}

Since 2016 McDonell's papers have been collected at The Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas.{{cite web | url=https://alcalde.texasexes.org/2016/09/a-life-in-magazines-terry-mcdonell-donates-his-archives-to-the-briscoe | title=A Life in Magazines: Terry McDonell Donates His Archives to the Briscoe | date=29 September 2016 }}

McDonell lives in Manhattan with his wife, Stacey Hadash. With his first wife, Joan Raffeld, he is the father of novelist Nick McDonell and actor Thomas McDonell.

{{Reflist}}

• David Carr, [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/05/business/media/05MAG.html "Sports Illustrated Is Expected to Get an Outsider as Editor"], The New York Times, February 5, 2002.
• Carl Bialik, [https://web.archive.org/web/20081003105212/http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/feb02/feb04/2_tues/news3tuesday.html "A Mr. Fix-It For Sports Illustrated"], Media Life Magazine, February 2002.
• Maureen Garry, [https://archive.today/20130128122728/http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news1999/sept99/news4929.html “Terry McDonell is Mr. Fix-It, But Can He Fix Wenner’s Folly?"], Media Life Magazine, September 1999.

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Category:1944 births

Category:American magazine editors

Category:Living people