Bill McDonald (Australian journalist)

Bill McDonald (born 1967) is an Australian journalist and news presenter.

McDonald is currently the presenter of Brisbane's Seven News with Sharyn Ghidella.

Career

Previously McDonald had been a sports presenter but was promoted to news presenter when Geoff Mullins left Ten News.^[1] He was also a sports presenter on Seven News.

In the summer of January 2010, McDonald presented Ten Early News, Ten Morning News and Ten Weekend News from Sydney.

In 2011, McDonald continues to present Ten News at Five. He will also continue to be the Queensland AFL ground commentator for Ten's national AFL coverage, mainly for matches involving the Brisbane Lions.

McDonald is active in other media and events in Brisbane. He broadcasts daily AFL reports on the Macquarie Southern Cross national radio network daily, as well as his Friday footy tips on Sunshine Coast's Mix FM. He's a regular MC at functions and in 2010 was appointed as the Queensland Rugby Club's corporate lunch host until 2012. McDonald has also commentated AFL for Triple M Radio Network and NIRS.

Previously he was also AFL correspondent for the Melbourne Age Newspaper's and wrote a weekly AFL column for the Gold Coast bulletin. For a while McDonald wrote columns for Brisbane News and Style magazines and co-hosted a live Saturday morning sports show on 94.9 FM.

McDonald is a professional voice-over artist, performing character voices for radio commercials. Bill along with business partner Kristin Devitt, own a media training company Mas Media (Master the Art of Speaking), focussing on corporate clientele.

In 2010, McDonald launched his website http://www.mcdonaldmedia.com.au as a showreel for his career.

In November 2012, McDonald was sacked by Network Ten.

In January 2013, it was announced that McDonald had joined Seven Network and would be presenting Seven News from Sunday to Thursday with Sharyn Ghidella.^[2]

Personal life

McDonald is married to wife Julianne; in mid 2010 she gave birth to the couple's fourth boy in dramatic circumstances. James had to be delivered 3 months early due to complications.

References