MEDIA: DIARY

The brothers grim

The cuts at the Telegraph are so swingeing that no department can expect to emerge unscathed. So there was perfect logic in one proposal that was doing the rounds of the editorial floor on Friday: do we really need two Barclay brothers?

Meanwhile, there was comfort to be drawn from a piece that appeared in the Telegraph's op-ed page last week. "In any just society, we all have a duty to one another," were the columnist's wise words. We are not quite sure how principle squares with practice on this one, since the writer in question was none other than The Telegraph's editor Martin Newland.

Managing Editor (change)

Meanwhile, could an upheaval be in the offing at The Observer, over and above its switch to Berliner size? We note that in its advertisement for a new managing editor, the paper says that "the successful candidate will also need to show a solid track record of managing change in an editorial environment". Or to put it another way, they'll need a very thick skin.

Howard's end

Tory leader Michael Howard (pictured) was halfway through a routine interview with girl teen mag Sugar last week when editor Annabel Brog decided it was time to spice things up a little. What, she asked, did Mr Howard think about Sugar telling its readers what certain sexual behaviour consisted of? Ms Brog says that Mr Howard failed to give an answer. "His press bloke Guy [Black]went a bit white though." Charles Kennedy is next on Ms Brog's interview list. He has been warned ...

Slaughtered at the poll

When will media organisations ever learn that once you go down the route of readers'/listeners' polls, you're in for trouble. The latest embarrassment befalls Radio 1 after it trumpeted a poll to find the greatest No 1 single of all time. The predictable winner was Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". But what's this at No 2? The decidedly un-Radio 1 "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter" by heavy-metal dinosaurs Iron Maiden. Not at all what the station was hoping for. No wonder the press release marking the poll failed to mention it. An internet voting campaign by Maiden devotees is being blamed.

Good neighbours

No fewer than six pages of the latest Vogue comprise a fawning profile of Pret a Manger and Itsu founder Julian Metcalf (pictured). "If Metcalf decided to go into politics, he would probably find himself plumping the cushions in Downing Street in no time," gushes the piece. What could have prompted such attention? Surely not the opening of a branch of Itsu next door to Vogue. Anyone for sushi, darling?