Grant Butler NOT Out at Oregonian

Via PortlandFood, the word that arts writer Grant Butler, right, who's lately been writing about what it's like to be vegan for a month and who before that wrote pretty much an apeshit amount of features for the Oregonian, has also, along with dining editor Karen Brooks, been laid off UPDATE: still has a job. As Nick A. Zukin points out, this UPDATE: the whole thing is just part of a general downward trend.

Their answer to sagging revenues is to make a shittier product -- to cut their local news staff, the people who actually make what the local newspapers do more valuable than what the blogs do or what the national press does or what the infotainment channels (ie, Foxnews, MSNBC, and CNN) put out.

And while there's a place for blogs (duh) and infotainment channels (insomnia, double duh), Zukin's on the money with the argument that this is a really, really, really dumb move that is only going to worsen the level of, we won't say discourse, but we will say conversation and/or news.
UPDATE: Just to clarify, Zukin misread something we'd posted, we ended up re-reporting that, and so this clusterfuck of rumormongering. Apologies to Butler, and, as Zukin says, "See, this is why we need newspapers."
UPDATE UPDATE: Reached on the phone just now, Butler: "I am still employed." And breathe.
· Karen Brooks Laid Off at Oregonian [PortlandFood]
· All Karen Brooks Coverage [EaterPDX]