Evanston resident Jim Romenesko unleashed a nearly 3,000-word account of his recent departure from Poynter in the inaugural post on his new website Friday.

The play-by-play narrative includes several references to his home city, from where he operated a Poynter blog for 12 years before stepping down earlier this month.

In a Poynter entry Nov. 10, online director Julie Moos wrote Romenesko had resigned amid questionable attribution in his recent contributions.

In a blog post dated Friday on JimRomenesko.com, he recalled a late July meeting with Moos at the Barnes & Noble in downtown Evanston to discuss his professional future at Poynter. But Romenesko was already readying his Evanston condo for sale and lining up health insurance independent of his soon-to-be former employer, he wrote.

“I’ve decided to retire from Poynter and work on JimRomenesko.com,” Romenesko told Moos, according to the blog post on his new website Friday.

When Moos called Romenesko in November to ask him about an upcoming story in the Columbia Journalism Review about questionable attribution practices, Romenesko wrote he began contemplating leaving his post altogether. He ultimately decided on asking Moos if he could end his Poynter contract seven weeks early.

After she refused his first offer of resignation, Romenesko wrote he persisted and eventually convinced her to release him from his contract.

“On Friday (Nov. 11), I walked around my South Evanston neighborhood and thought about what happened and what I would do next,” Romenesko wrote.

Since Friday’s inaugural post, Romenesko has written about several other topics for his new website, including neglected female perspectives in “Page One: Inside the New York Times” and fast food public relations.

– Patrick Svitek