Terry McDonell


Robert Terry McDonell is the former editor of the Time Inc. Sports Group. McDonell directed 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.

Life and career

McDonell was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the son of Irma Sophronia and Robert Meynard McDonell.
He is an editor, writer and publishing executive with broad experience in a variety of media. He served as editor of Time Inc. Sports Group from 2006 to 2012. 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 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 named one of Sports Business Journal’s 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business in 2007 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 1996 to 1999. He came to Men's Journal from the Hearst Corporation's Sports Afield, where he served as editor-in-chief and publisher from 1993 to 1996. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of Esquire from 1990 to 1993. In 1987, 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 and Rocky Mountain magazines.
McDonell is also a novelist and screenwriter. 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.