More on the Listener story: Finlay Macdonald has elaborated on his reasons for resigning the editorship, citing a "burnout factor" and saying "[I have] come to the end of my run".

Yesterday, Listener publisher Wendy Bloxham stated that “subscriptions have grown almost 20 per cent” during Macdonald’s tenure. Both the Listener and the Herald are published by Wilson & Horton, and today’s Herald reports

The Listener's circulation has dropped during Macdonald's tenure from 90,018 in February 1999 to its current Audit Bureau of Circulation figure of 76,171 in an increasingly tough magazine market.

Russell Brown, writing in Hard News, says that Macdonald

in his five years in the job has given the magazine a strength of identity that had been wanting for a long time. Like it or loathe, you know what the Listener stands for, and that's his legacy. I might add that he's been a good guy to work for. Cheers, mate.