Dean Lemann said the Web site hadn't raised enough money the online staff. Two editors quit in protest. It may sound somewhat like the setup to a deliciously bad college movie, but it's all-too-real for the Columbia Journalism Review.

Via the New York Times:

The managing editor of CJRDaily.org, an online adjunct of The Columbia Journalism Review, and his deputy both quit yesterday after the dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism told them he was cutting the site's budget nearly in half.

The abrupt resignations of managing editor Steve Lovelady and assistant managing editor Bryan Keefer reduce the site's staff size from 8 to 6. Lovelady called the budget cut a "gutting" and Dean Lemann "something out of the 19th century": "Nick has decided to spend the money on a direct-mail campaign for the magazine, in hopes of saving subscription revenue. To me, that sounds like something out of the 19th century. He's taking the one, fresh, smart thing he has and gutting it."

Now, if Lovelady and Keefer move into a Brownstone and decide to start an off-campus fraternity to raise funds, we'd like the film rights.

2 Editors Resign at Web Site Linked to Journalism Review [NYT]