Mick Dumke

Mick Dumke, the highly respected senior writer at the Chicago Reader, is about to be traded to the Sun-Times. Both publications are owned by Sun-Times Media parent company Wrapports LLC.

Starting later this month, Dumke will join the Sun-Times as a full-time investigative reporter, beefing up the paper’s award-winning Watchdog team of Tim Novak, Chris Fusco and Dan Mihalopoulos.

“Mick is an outstanding, dogged reporter who knows city, county and state government as well as anyone in the business,” said Jim Kirk, publisher and editor of Sun-Times Media. “He will be a terrific addition to the best investigative team in the city. We can't wait for him to start.”

The move will reunite Dumke with Kirk and Mihalopoulos, who worked together at the Chicago News Cooperative, a nonprofit news venture that ceased operation in 2012.

A graduate of Northwestern University and McCormick Theological Seminary, Dumke, 44, first joined the Reader in 2005. Except for his nine-month stint at the News Cooperative, he has worked at the alternative weekly ever since. He previously was a political writer and managing editor at the Chicago Reporter. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University.

In a related action Thursday, Kirk said the Sun-Times has broadened its working relationship with the Better Government Association, the nonprofit agency that investigates allegations of waste, fraud and corruption in city, county, suburban and state government.

“We’re looking to do three or four big projects a year and really up the ante in terms of the types of investigations we’re doing,” Kirk said.