Cooke Eager to Join Hollinger Despite Company's Past Problems

By: Joe Strupp New York Daily News Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, who is leaving New York to become a top editor for Hollinger International in Chicago, says Hollinger's recent troubles will not stop the company from having a successful future.

"I think Hollinger's problems, such as they are, are coming to an end," Cooke, 53, told E&P Tuesday, just days after announcing his resignation from the Daily News. "It has great leadership and my partner [Hollinger Chief Operating Officer John Cruickshank] has put together a very interesting team."

Cooke previously served as editor of Hollinger's Chicago Sun-Times from 2000 to 2005. He returns as the company is trying to recover from several recent scandals, including the alleged theft of some $80 million from company coffers by former Chairman Conrad Black and two other executives, as well as a 2004 circulation scandal in which the Sun-Times over-inflated daily circulation by tens of thousands of copies.

"I am not sure Hollinger is in a bad situation," Cooke said. "The money that was being bled is going back into the company and to the shareholders."

Cooke, who raised eyebrows last week when he announced plans to leave his Daily News job after less than a year, reiterated that he had no beef with the Daily News' editorial director, Martin Dunn, who has served as his boss and will take over his duties upon Cooke's departure in January. Instead, he contends the new job, as editorial director for Hollinger's Sun-Times News Group, which includes the Chicago Sun-Times, seven other dailies, and a string of weeklies, is the true reason.

"It is a corporate job that I have never been offered before," Cooke says. "I've edited newspapers for 20 years and this takes me out of getting midnight phone calls." Cooke called New York "a wonderful place," adding, "I hope to return someday. Who knows, predicting the future is hard."

Cooke, who is married with three children, urged others not to speculate about his reasons for leaving, noting that only he can properly chose between the two jobs. "People will put on the scale the two and decide which is a better job," he said. "I have decided I want to do this one."

When asked if he was leaving because running the lone Chicago tabloid might be easier than directing one of two competitive New York tabloids, Cooke said no, but admitted that the competition clearly made New York a great challenge. "There is the same sense of energy and excitement in both newsrooms," he said. "I think what makes the Daily News different is the financial competition. Anyone can sit in the New York Post editor's chair and lose $50 million and it doesn't matter."

In Chicago, Cooke said, "there isn't a competing tabloid, but you have to pitch the paper to the disaffected [Chicago] Tribune readers." Cooke also said he had no immediate plans to shake up the news operations at Hollinger, saying "I have to get my arms around the new corporate portfolio and understand it."