For the record: 01/02/2010

"There are those I know who think we should be looking for a star broadcaster." ITV chairman Archie Norman defends the decision to appoint Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier as the broadcaster’s chief executive

ITV chairman Archie Norman

Inside job

Who is the mole behind the cheeky blog Daily Mail Insider? The latest instalment describes the anticipation in the newsroom ahead of editor Paul Dacre returning from his three-week January holiday. “While he has been away there has been a great deal of indiscipline – laughter has been heard on several occasions – and he is badly needed to stamp this out.

He always returns from holiday refreshed and reinvigorated, ready to show us all where we have gone wrong and in which specific ways we are particularly useless. We can’t wait for him to get back.”

Blog brothers

The author is surely not Peter Williams, the Daily Mail & General Trust Finance Director, who has provided holiday cover on DMGT chief executive Martin Morgan’s “Coffee with Martin” blog. In “Tea with Peter”, the author predicts “a lot of uncertainty over the rest of the year, especially from our UK operations”. All refreshingly open. What next, an editors’ blog from Mr Dacre and the Mail on Sunday’s Peter Wright? “Half of Bitter with Paul and Peter.” That would steal the Insider’s thunder.

Picking on Paxo

Charles Moore said he would call off his campaign of withholding his BBC licence fee when Jonathan Ross departs the corporation in July. But last week he found a new target in Newsnight and its “bouffant-haired” presenter. “Jeremy Paxman earns £1m a year, five times more than the Prime Minister. That is what the programme thinks of itself. We, who have to pay for it, may not always share that high estimation.” Or in your case Charles, don’t pay.

One for Five

Dorothy Byrne, the head of news and current affairs at Channel 4, writes in the Daily Mail of her battle with the condition polymyalgia rheumatica. Byrne, says she is worried about bloated cheeks and has become obsessed with the notion of “My New Face”. Cue punchline at a rival’s expense: “Oh my God. It sounds like a Channel Five documentary.”