By: Joe Strupp The New York Daily News is not expected to replace departing Editor-In-Chief Michael Cooke after he leaves the tabloid early next year, choosing instead to turn over Cooke's day-to-day responsibilities to Editorial Director Martin Dunn.
Cooke, who resigned Friday after less than a year on the job, confirmed that Dunn will take over his duties, calling him "a superb newspaper guy." Dunn could be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. Another source at the Daily News also revealed that Dunn was "expected to take over the responsibilities of editor indefinitely."
No official announcement from the paper has been made concerning the succession plans.
Cooke, 53, is leaving the Daily News to return to Hollinger International Inc., owners of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he served as editor for five years before coming to New York in January 2005. In his new position, Cooke will be Vice President for Editorial overseeing Hollinger's Sun-Times Group.
Dunn, who served as Daily News editor-in-chief from 1993 to 1997, returned to the paper as editorial director and deputy publisher in 2003. In that role, he has overseen both Cooke and Executive Editor Robert Sapio.
Until today's
interview with E&P's Joe Strupp, Cooke had said little about why he is leaving the Daily News, other than to take advantage of a new opportunity. "Working in this newsroom has been a marvelous experience for me," he told staffers in a memo. "I have admired your talent, energy and dedication in our daily battle to beat the other guys. I have no doubt the Daily News will win the war."
Even in his short tenure at the paper, Cooke came under fire briefly last summer when the Daily News reprinted a story by Cooke that had originally appeared in the Sun-Times in 2004. The article, a first-person account of a trip to an exclusive castle in England, ran almost identically in the Sun-Times less than a year before it ran in the Daily News.
Daily News Spokeswoman Donna Dees said only that Cooke was leaving to pursue a "fabulous opportunity at the Sun-Times."
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