He spent a period as editor of the Garda Review (the monthly magazine of the national police force), before becoming crime correspondent for the Evening Herald.
[2] The investigation which told the inside story of the collapse of Anglo-Irish Bank made international headlines and dominated political debate for weeks.
[1][5][6][7] While editor of the Irish Independent, Rae oversaw the ending of its publication as a broadsheet and the development of its online news site which recorded average audiences of 12,000,000 monthly users.
The story which said "the probe was ordered after a witness came forward and alleged he was present for the handover of £30,000 to the public representative" was one of the first by a journalist into the planning scandal that led to the establishment of the Mahon Tribunal.
As editor-in-chief at INM, he reportedly fired journalist Gemma O'Doherty after she made an attempt to interview Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.
The Sunday Independent reported how the company "interrogated" data belonging to journalists and other prominent figures off site leading to an investigation by the ODCE [25] The report was by the journalists Dearbhail McDonald, Shane Phelan and Samantha McCaughren who won a journalistic award for their investigative series [26] Prior to stepping down and after overseeing the publication of the investigative series Rae implemented a "Triple Lock" system to ensure that journalists' data at INM would never again be accessed by the commercial arm of the company without a rigorous triple lock mechanism being triggered involving the knowledge and authorisation of three senior executives, including the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor [27] Rae is involved in digital media projects as advisor and investor including San Francisco headquartered climate newsletter Callaway Climate Insights [28]