Sigh. Another journalist leaves the industry and takes a PR job. This time it's long-time Willamette Week managing news editor Hank Stern who's leaving to take a public affairs job with Multnomah County. He'll be one of the county's spokesmen starting April 20th.

Stern has been the backbone of WWeek's news department since 2005. Though, hey, he's the competition, by I've always heard that Stern is an upstanding guy and definitely a well-respected journalist.

But a PR job at the county is certainly enticing. The job brings with it an $80,000 annual salary.

According to an anonymous source, WWeek publisher Mark Zusman "had a huge blow up" at Stern after he announced to staff that he would leave. "Things got really ugly. Zusman was really upset about how Hank taking the job at the county would affect the paper's reputation," says our source.

Stern says that is "completely untrue." "He's been perfectly fair with me," says Stern, adding that from now until his last day he'll be "completely walled off" from stories having to do with the county.