WAMU’s news director Jim Asendio is leaving his job, according to a WAMU source and an e-mail that went out to staff this afternoon. That e-mail is a no-nonsense communication:

Colleagues:-

Jim has left WAMU. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

Meymo Lyons is Acting News Director with immediate effect, and she and I will be working with the newsroom staff to find a replacement for Jim in the coming days and weeks.

Thanks all,

That note came from Mark McDonald, the station’s director of programs. There are some rumblings among staff about what may lie behind this development but nothing is confirmed just yet.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with McDonald. He invoked the manager’s much-used Personnel-Matter-Comment-Exemption. “We don’t discuss personnel issues,” said McDonald, noting that the parting of ways is a matter that’s “between Jim and the station.”