"It was a column that was intended to be and was a specific narrative of her experience, but ultimately it wasn't to my taste," Mr. Blum said over the phone.

"I don't want to try to characterize them," he answered of whether the columns were too explicit. "They speak for themselves."

In a column published on Dec. 26, Ms. Kreth dishes about her attraction to Internet-celeb Paul Janka and her predilication for posteriors stemming from a visit to the doctor as a little girl.

"My tight pink asshole is relaxed and ready for you, Paul. In fact, I can feel it blowing kisses your way as I type. [My editor will eat this up, and there is nothing better than having your editor eating up your pink asshole.]."

The lines of communication must have crossed somewhere, because Mr. Blum said he never instructed Ms. Kreth to focus more on sex (she told The Observer earlier today that Mr. Blum didn't like her earlier, largely sex-less columns), and they both understood it to be a sex and relationships column. Though readers responded both "positively and negatively" to Ms. Kreth's writing, Mr. Blum took full responsibility for her dismissal.

"I felt that she had a very specific voice, that I didn’t want to change but at same time it wasn’t going in the direction I wanted," he said. "The judgement was based on my own feelings and not reader reaction."

The New York Press has no plans to hire a new sex columnist.