Word on the Street: Change at the top for Newsnight and Today

As predicted here in August, Gavin Esler will replace Jeremy Vine at Newsnight. Why the delay in confirming the choice? One consideration was the feelings of Andrew Neil, another candidate, whose Despatch Box programme was recently axed. Esler's elevation was postponed while a new show was devised, which Neil will host after Question Time on BBC 1. In fact, it seems Esler was the last to learn of his promotion, which was known to rivals and colleagues alike before he was tracked down in Arizona, covering the American mid-term elections.

¿ Over in radio, it seems that the editorship of Today, left vacant by Rod Liddle, has attracted few credible applicants. Outside candidates have spurned the salary, a mere £70,000. Insiders have been discouraged because Liddle's iconoclastic rule terrified management, who will deny his replacement such freedom. Sensible money is on Kevin Marsh, supremo of The World at One and PM. Marsh is no patsy. Downing Street once accused him of following an "anti-Labour agenda". So, the ideal editor? The BBC did not think so on the two or more previous occasions when he applied.

¿ The readers of The Guardian have been treated to the musings of a new columnist, Janice Turner, complete with shiny picture byline. So, whence has this bright young talent emerged? The curious could ask Peter Preston, Guardian editorial director and former editor, who, being her father-in-law, must follow her career with interest.

¿ Triumph for the struggling ITV News channel, which has achieved its highest ratings ever, on the evening of Estelle Morris's resignation and the start of the Moscow theatre siege. ITV News, though, was showing Premiership football and did not interrupt the match for updates from Moscow or Westminster.

¿ In last week's article "A Sorry Tale", we said that in 1998 The Mail on Sunday had paid Brooke Shields £500,000 in libel damages. The Mail on Sunday tells us that the actual figure was considerably smaller. Sorry.