He left for a promotion. More money, more interesting job, better job description, better title, probably a nice office. Like most people that switch jobs, he left for a better deal. Apparently Fairfax is a fairly hellish place to work at the moment though, so it must be a sweet deal. Hinds has gone the other way, so who knows.
The idea people are tossing up that you have to be 100% into RL to get paid to write about it is weird. Crime reporters don't have to like crime and the guy that works in the obituary section doesn't have to like death. I'd write about garden furniture or polka dancing for $200k a year.