Michael Cooke will become the new editor of the Toronto Star on March 1, the paper announced. Cooke replaces editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz,  who left in December just a few months after the departure of former publisher Jagoda Pike.

Cooke, who worked at the Star in the ’70’s as an assistant national editor, will move to Toronto from his current job as editor-in-chief of the Chicago Sun-Times — where he also worked with new Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank.

Cooke was part of the editorial team that founded the National Post; a former editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News and the Vancouver Province; and former managing editor of the Edmonton Journal and of the Montreal Gazette. A Canadian Press story is on the Globe and Mail site.