Michael Cooke

Michael Cooke
Born	~1953 England
Occupation	Editor

Michael Cooke is a journalist and publishing executive. He is the editor of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest-circulation daily newspaper.

Cooke was born and raised in England. Cooke was first employed "in a small English coastal town" before making the move to Fleet Street.

Cooke then secured work in Canada as a copy editor for the Toronto Star from 1974–77, where he finished as Assistant National Editor.

He joined the Montreal Gazette in 1977 as assistant city editor. While serving as city editor, he was awarded a 1982 Southam fellowship, providing eight months of study at the University of Toronto. He then took a position as a joint managing editor for the Gazette.

In 1992, he was appointed managing editor of the Edmonton Journal.

In 1995 he transferred to assume the role of editor at the Vancouver Province. His focus on entertainment journalism and readership at the expense of other reporting has been discussed by journalism scholars. He drew protests from within his own newsroom for what some described as "blatant political interference," such as ordering a professor's comments be removed from a story because they were too "left-wing." Under his leadership, the team surpassed the Vancouver Sun in readership and became the largest newspaper in British Columbia.

He became involved as a founding editor of the 1998 creation of the National Post newspaper, and worked as the Editor-in-Chief of the Financial Post over the summer months as it prepared for the merger with the new publication. He still maintained his position with the Province for the next two years, before leaving for the United States.

In 2000, Cooke was appointed Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, replacing outgoing editor Nigel Wade to whom he had been favourably compared, at the invitation of David Radler. On January 18, 2000 he gave a lecture at the University of British Columbia entitled "Where To Get Story Ideas Your Boss Will Love".

...
Wikipedia