The spectator

Fleet Street was awash with rumours that 'Observer' editor Roger Alton had resigned last week. How come? It was all wishful thinking by the 'Guardian' news desk. When they saw the 'Observer' editor walk out of a meeting with their own editor, Alan Rusbridger, on Wednesday afternoon, one hack muttered: "That's Alton for the tic-tac" ('Guardian' rhyming slang for the sack, apparently). Alton went to the gym, putting him beyond contact, but by then the 'Guardian' news desk had already called all their friends at other papers with the "news". When Alton rolled back into the office on Thursday, he coolly told his staff: "When they said 'The Special One' had gone, they didn't mean me."

Lightweight politics

The Latest to depart 'The Daily Telegraph' is Brendan Carlin, Lib Dems correspondent and the only man in Fleet Street to wear an eyepatch. He is off to the 'Mail on Sunday'. This leaves the political team distinctly thin. Political editor George Jones had his leaving do this week, his deputy Toby Helm has been moved sideways, and political correspondent Graeme Wilson has gone to 'The Sun'. The changes will leave new political editor Andrew Porter with no one to edit.

The stump of class

Peter Wilby has spotted a niche in the market. He's writing 'The Socialist History of Cricket'. "The history of cricket is full of class conflict – the gentleman and players," explains Wilby. "Even their names were shown differently on score sheets: the amateurs' initials would come before their surnames, the professionals' initials after. Cricket also became a vehicle for self-assertion in many former colonies." Wilby, whose tome is out in 2009, admits to being mediocre with bat and ball.

'Peasant-whipper' relents

The 'Evening Standard' is bracing itself for a relaunch in October, with a move upmarket and the new Eros cards tracking the affluence of customers. So editor Veronica Wadley must have been distressed when her top snob features editor Simon Davis, surely a key player in the relaunch, tendered his resignation in August. Anyway, that didn't last long. Davis, who is is known to colleagues as "the peasant-whipper", has been brought back into the fold to edit a new supplement.

Wise words, deaf ears

In Thursday's 'Times', its economics sage Anatole Kaletsky said the Northern Rock debacle was just a footnote in history. "Disregard sensationalist headlines about collapsing consumer confidence, recriminations in Whitehall and heads rolling at the Bank of England," he wrote. Did editor Robert Thomson not read his column? That day the front-page headline, "Bank chief under fire over crisis flip-flop", was followed by two pages asking "Will the run on Rock mean King losing his crown?"