The Word on the Street: Telegraph magazine; Mail distraction; Washington posting

The arrival of Michelle Lavery from Harper's Bazaar to edit the Daily Telegraph magazine has caused a mini-exodus. Three senior staffers have handed in their notice, including the deputy editor, Will Ellsworth-Jones. Staff worry privately that Ms Lavery is "far more quiet and undemonstrative" than the redoubtable Emma Soames, whom she replaced. Normally, staff leave because a new editor is noisy and demonstrative. But they do things differently at the Telegraph.

¿ Paul Dacre has struck the fear of God into staff and executives for years. But is his power to terrorise on the wane? Even the Daily Mail ground to a halt for the England-Argentina game last week. He emerged from his office on Friday to discover that all eyes were glued to the television. "Am I going to have to bring out this bloody newspaper all on my own?" he boomed.

¿ Julian Coman has nabbed The Sunday Telegraph's Washington job after Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times's man in Paris, was persuaded not to take it and to remain a Murdoch man. Colleagues are wondering how Coman, a liberal who has found himself struggling with the Telegraph's conservatism before, will cope with an administration so admired by his editor, Dominic Lawson.

¿ Stephen Fry may be the bigger name in the outside world, but the listeners of Radio 4 are manifestly more discerning. Mr Fry lost out in a poll of Word of Mouth listeners to decide the "wittiest living person", to the station favourite, Linda Smith. Michael Rosen, the Word of Mouth presenter, interrupted the recording of the series Linda Smith's a Brief History of Timewasting to hand the presenter a silver cup marking the achievement.