Roger Alton and trouble at t'Observer

A poppet insider relates the following ...

Your Gorgeousness

Keep an eye on the Observer over the next weeks. The rumour in the week that editor Roger Alton had got the push/resigned not entirely without foundation as there is now a huge wedge between the Guardian and The Observer. (And this in the week when there was an awayday for senior execs to discuss greater integration.)

This is the result of news ed Kamal Ahmed getting to keep his job - the result of an investigation into the embarrassment over the MMR splash that wasn't a story of two months ago (Catch up here, on the very good bad science website, http://www.badscience.net/index.php?s=observer). The Scott Trust got involved, editor Roger Alton had to go to before them and receive six of the best like a naughty schoolboy.

Alton, in turn, is annoyed because, despite a sustained pisspoor news performance, Alton has done his best to support ailing news ed Ahmed who was seen crying in the editor's office last week.. Not for long, if the experienced hands in the newsroom get their way - Alton has now realised that a news ed who behaves all the time like a pre-teen who's drunk too much fizzy pop is perhaps not a good idea. And some of the older reporters don't want to work for him. Watch this space...