QUOTED: Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke, on losing two key reporters to the Globe and Mail
QUOTED: Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke, on losing two key reporters to the Globe and Mail

“Our competitors have woken up after 5 years of slumber and are coming after our best people, and in some cases are successful in luring them away.”
–Michael Cooke, boss of bosses at the Toronto Star, in a dour staff memo on the departures of sports columnist Cathal Kelly and city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle. Both reporters were integral to the Star’s brand, and both of them decamped for the Globe and Mail in the space of two weeks. Perhaps even more revealing of Cooke’s mood is the memo’s subject line: “Of course they raid the Star…where else are they going to look?”
Of course people are raiding the Star – particularly as it lays off so many of its own, and then screws the new hires it’s looking for to be digital content reporters.
Cathal Kelly sucks balls. Hardly a key loss.
Doolittle did state that she was forced to take the city hall beat. And secondly, the Globe and Mail pays and treats its reporters better. So what is Cooke’s issues the poor girl?