Finlay Macdonald

Finlay Macdonald is a writer, editor and publisher who has worked in the New Zealand media since 1986. He was editor of the Listener from 1997 to 2003, commissioning editor at Penguin Books, a weekly columnist for the Sunday Star-Times, and NZ Publisher at HarperCollins until 2015.

Politics
Mar 23, 2018

The audacity of ho-hum: Barack Obama in New Zealand

A few private rounds of golf and a few private speeches. What, asks Finlay Macdonald, did it really amount to?

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Music
Jul 31, 2017

The fall and rise of New Zealand's craziest rock band

Finlay Macdonald talks to Julian Boshier, the director of Swagger of Thieves, a documentary about notorious '90s rock band Head Like A Hole.

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Books
Apr 12, 2017

Book of the week: Finlay Macdonald on a posthumous work by the great maverick of New Zealand letters, James McNeish

An essay by Finlay Macdonald on a typically brilliant and impossible to categorise work of biographical art by the late James McNeish.

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Books
May 26, 2016

Book of the Week: The murder of Osama bin Laden

"We kicked his ass and took his gas": Finlay Macdonald reviews Seymour Hersh's inquiry into the killing - and burial at sea, if it happened - of Osama bin Laden.

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Television
Nov 3, 2015

Television: The Daily Show – Should We Climb Aboard Trevor Noah’s Late Night Ark?

"It’s always a mistake to imagine a host is bigger than the format. Paul Holmes played that card when he took his show from TVNZ to Prime, and it was not an ace."

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Sports
Oct 27, 2015

Sports: The Coming Week in Media Hysteria

The well of rugby knowledge has run dry, writes Finlay Macdonald. We're in for a terrifying few days at Peak All Black.

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Television
Aug 6, 2015

Appreciation: The Un-American Activity of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show

"Jon Stewart has probably done more good for the image of America abroad than any of the presidents he has made fun of in his 17 years on air" – Finlay Macdonald farewells Jon Stewart

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Television
Jul 6, 2015

Obituary: How Val Doonican Gently Rocked Knitwear – Feb 3 1927–July 1 2015

"For a guy dressed in period knitwear who sang from a rocking chair, that’s not a bad innings." – Finlay Macdonald pays tribute to Val Doonican, the man who put the rock into rocking chair.

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Television
May 22, 2015

Campbell Live: The NZX Factor – Driven by Mazda, Driven Out by MediaWorks

"Simply a stone in the shoe for a channel remaking itself in the image of its new board – what you might call the NZX Factor."

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Television
May 21, 2015

Struggle Street: How the “Scum Zoo” of Struggle Street Became a Ratings Smash

Finlay McDonald looks at the emerging international television phenomenon known as 'poverty porn'.

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Television
Apr 29, 2015

Masterchef NZ: Perfecting the Lost Art of Public Mastication

After gorging himself on a strict diet of food television and cooking reality shows, Finlay Macdonald examines the skills required to be the perfect public eater.

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