Retirement Life
29 October 2025
Profile: Author Doug Gold
Wellingtonian Doug Gold cofounded the More FM radio network before sitting down in his 70s to become an international best-selling author.
His latest book, Saving Elli, was released in September. He shares his passion for ensuring important stories get told.
You had a busy career in the media industry before becoming an author. Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I was originally going to be a secondary school teacher - but ended up in media and never left. All my working career, I was in the media, and I'm still doing some work in it now. I started out as a copywriter writing commercials for radio stations and then moved more into the sales and management areas.
In 1991, a business partner and I bid for some radio frequencies and set up the More FM radio network, which had stations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Then we bought The Breeze and later set up Channel Z. We sold that to Canwest, who were then the owners of TV3.
During that time, I set up another media company called NRS Media. We provided revenue-generating solutions for media companies. We had offices in Sydney, Atlanta, Toronto, London, and Cape Town, and operated with about 250 staff. We sold that to a US private equity company. And since then, I've sort of been semi-retired, I guess.
How much would you get a fortnight with Lifetime?
So would you consider yourself retired now?
No, I'm not. And I'd get bored to tears if I were. I just like to be doing things. It's not about whether it's an opportunity to generate income. My thing is to have a project. I need something to focus on. Once I focus on something, I put everything else to one side.
Your focus on writing - how did that come about?
I've always enjoyed writing, but never really had the time while I was working full-time. My first book was really written as a family memoir. It was called The Note Through the Wire, based on my wife's parents' story. Her mother was a Slovene resistance fighter in World War II, and her father was a New Zealand prisoner of war. They met by accident in her hometown. It was a story with a lot of twists and turns.
The publisher thought there was some value in it as a commercial book, so I had to rewrite quite significant parts of it. It did really well, so that prompted me to write another one, and then another one...
With the books, my satisfaction comes when the job is done. When the book goes to print, that's when I get the greatest satisfaction. If it sells well, that's a bonus.
With your subsequent books - did the stories find you, or did you find them?
A bit of both. The Dressmaker and the Hidden Soldier came from a researcher hired by the publisher. But Saving Elli came to me. A reader emailed me and mentioned her parents-in-law had hidden a Jewish child for two years in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. I was intrigued. She’d done a lot of research herself, and the more I got into it, the more I realised it was a story that had to be told.
How do you structure your days now?
I'm pretty disciplined. I've worked from home for goodness me, 30 years, although in that time, I've still been working almost full-time.
I structure my work around other things. If it's pouring down on a Sunday, I might do a day's work. If it's a fine Wednesday, I might go out for a walk or a drive. But I know what I need to do, and I do it. We travel a lot, too, so I get a good balance.
Doug Gold - Photo credit: Sabrina Barbara
What are you most proud of from your careers?
From a media perspective, it’s the people I’ve worked with and maybe helped along the way. I still keep in touch with a huge number of people who are now very prominent broadcasters. From a writing perspective, it’s about getting these stories out there before they’re lost to future generations.
Any advice you would give your younger self?
Maybe trying to get a better work-life balance. I probably didn’t get that right until much later in life. My wife would probably say I still haven’t got it right!
Any advice for retirees out there now?
Do what you enjoy. People enjoy different things. I’ve got a very good friend who’s an incredible gardener. That’s not going to generate income, but it gives him huge satisfaction. If what you enjoy happens to have commercial implications, great. But don’t do something just because it might make you money. Do it for the right reasons.
Age is no barrier to taking on new challenges. I pushed myself outside my comfort zone when I started writing books. Fear of failure has never prevented me from doing something. My advice is, just because you’re in your 70s and 80s doesn’t mean you can’t start something you might have wanted to do but never had time for before. You don’t want to look back and say, ‘I wish I’d done that.’
Want to know more?
Written by:
Sonia Speedy
Sonia Speedy has been a journalist for over 20 years, working in newspapers, magazines and radio. She also runs an online platform for parents at familytimes.co.nz. She lives on the Kāpiti Coast with her young family and loves writing stories that help make people's lives easier.
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