Award winning journalist and newly qualified lawyer, Josie McNaught has been a television director, story producer and reporter, and writer for leading specialist magazines and national newspapers in New Zealand and internationally, with an emphasis on design, architecture, and the visual arts. She combined this with copy writing, account management and communications/marketing across a range of topics and clients.
Josie studied law because it she knew she already had some of the skills required to be a good lawyer (functional, administrative, disciplined, analytical and critical skills, good interviewing skills, confidence, tenacity and passion) She completed the degree successfully in just three years and ended up winning the Criminal Procedure prize and a place on the Dean’s List.
Prior to the degree Josie demonstrated strong news gathering talents which she developed over her 20 year career. This included a role as associate producer for New Artland ( TVNZ 6). She was also senior director on Mai Time (TVNZ) and a freelance television arts reporter.
Josie has produced and directed two series of TV2’s top rating consumer show, My House My Castle. For this series she broke stories relating to building franchises and rent to buy operators – the latter story led to a full Commerce Commission investigation and saw one of the operators end up in court.
Josie is a regular broadcaster on Radio New Zealand as a member of The Panel and as an arts commentator for various programmes.
She has worked as a reporter, researcher and director for New Zealand television’s leading arts and design television shows: Backchat and Frontseat, was the arts, architecture and design correspondent for Agenda (TVNZ), and filled that role for The Nation (TV3).
With a strong background in architecture and design, Josie has written for all the major design publications in New Zealand over the last 20 years: HOME New Zealand and Your Home and Garden (writer and sub-editor), and Urbis, Pro Design and Architecture NZ (writer).
She currently has a column exploring arts issues, ideas and controversies in New Zealand’s most popular art magazine, Art News, and prior to studying law wrote a "Wot's Hot" arts alert for Metro magazine.
In addition to her arts reporting work, Josie developed skills in communications, marketing and brand/advertising via regular copy-writing contracts and last year as an account manager/copy-writer for a small brand advertising company in Auckland.
Throughout her career, Josie has covered many major national and international events for television, radio and print media including New Zealand’s two leading architecture awards: the NZIA and Home of the Year awards, and the Venice and Sydney Biennial art exhibitions. She has also been an arts news reporter and contributing features writer for The Dominion Post, NZ Herald, Herald on Sunday and Sunday Star Times.
Josie has a degree majoring in English and Art History, including papers on New Zealand and international architectural history and a post-graduate journalism qualification. In 2007 she won the Qantas award for investigative news reporting about a significant art fraud.
The change in the media landscape over recent years prompted Josie to explore a new career that would use some of the skills she developed as a journalist (advocacy and writing) and learn new ones. To this end she graduated with a Law degree from AUT University in Auckland in June 2016.
