[2][3][4][5] Macdonald was appointed New Zealand Editor: Politics, Business & Arts of the online media site The Conversation in April 2020.
[9] Macdonald began his career as a junior reporter for the NZ Listener, later becoming a senior writer, before leaving to pursue a freelance career, during which time he researched and wrote television documentaries and was for two years a regular scriptwriter for TVNZ's long-running drama series Shortland Street.
[citation needed] From 1996 to 1997 Macdonald was a senior writer for Metro magazine,[10] before returning to the Listener as deputy editor under then-editor Paul Little.
From 2006 to 2010 Macdonald wrote a weekly column for the Sunday Star-Times (which he has compared to writing a Listener editorial);[3] and was also the paper's literary editor.
[13] More recently he has written for North & South magazine, The Spinoff, Radio New Zealand and Newsroom.