After twelve years of blogging at Poynter, Jim Romenesko has submitted his resignation and I have accepted it. Jim has decided he’s ready for a fresh start now — seven weeks before he was scheduled to become a part-time employee and start his own blog.
His decision comes after Poynter.org published a story about questionable attribution in Jim’s posts. I’ve closely followed the reaction to this on Twitter, Facebook and the comments on our site and others. I’m relieved that many readers and sources understood Jim’s intent to credit properly and felt fairly treated by him.
This was not the transition Jim and I planned during our talks this summer, and it’s not the end I wanted. Nor was it the end he wanted, as he told The New York Times.
The abrupt conclusion of Jim’s tenure with Poynter should not overshadow his unmatched contributions; he changed Poynter, he changed journalism and he changed newsrooms.
“Jim Romenesko is a creative journalist and a fine person. He built an important news form at Poynter. I’m grateful and wish him the best,” said Poynter President Karen Dunlap Thursday night.
In an email, Jim said, “I’ve had a great dozen years at Poynter, and I look forward to my next chapter. Thanks to Karen Dunlap, Bill Mitchell, Julie Moos, Jim Naughton and the rest of the crew.”
We will change the blog’s name in the coming days, but Romenesko will remain an important part of Poynter’s legacy, one we value.
Related: Media critics rush to defend Romenesko (Adam Clark Estes/Atlantic Wire) | Romenesko’s offense was punctuation (Steve Buttry) | The intolerable evolution of Poynter’s Romenesko (Choire Sicha/The Awl) | Holding aggregators to journalistic standards (Felix Salmon/Reuters) | The preposterous plagiarism assault on Romenesko (Hamilton Nolan/Gawker) | “Somebody has to start drawing lines here” (Eric Deggans/Poynter’s St. Pete Times)
Comments