The Wall Street Journal has lost a restaurant critic, reports The Times Diner’s Journal blog. According to Raymond Sokolov, the paper asked him to start writing about food trends instead of writing restaurant reviews; he decided to stop writing for the paper altogether rather than changing beats.

But surely the Journal‘s forthcoming New York section needs a Sam Sifton counterpart if it’s going to keep up with The Times, right?  Diner’s Journal says:

The Journal is about to begin a new section focused on New York, and has interviewed other restaurant critics in connection with that project. Asked if the paper planned to run restaurant reviews in the new section, [communications director Ashley Huston] declined to comment.

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