Cover stories: Kylie Minogue, Bertelsmann

As if enough celebrity scribblers weren't already queuing on the starting blocks for autumn tours, this week Kylie Minogue finished a book. Hodder & Stoughton, who reckons it can shift half a million in two months before Christmas, makes it clear that La La La is not a memoir but a Definitive Visual Companion, written mostly by her friend and designer William Baker. The pert Antipodean herself contributes an introduction and a commentary on the photographs, "which further define Kylie as a style icon". We can't wait.

* The abrupt departure of Thomas Middelhoff from the top job at Bertelsmann, the German giant that owns Random House and Transworld, has caused surprise. His departure, following a boardroom tiff, is being seen as a sign that Bertelsmann, a private company that Middelhoff wanted to take to market, is now less interested in music, TV and online, and will return to its core role in publishing and printing. New head honcho, Gunter Thielen, has moved from the print division, and his conservative views are likely to meet with family approval. So what does the future hold for Gail Rebuck, who presides over the UK publishing interests? Some say she is happy to remain at the helm, maybe adding a title and a cosy sinecure that could come about as a result of her friendship, via husband Philip Gould, with the PM. Others think she is hungry for higher office and (well thought-of in New York and Gutersloh, Bertelsmann's HQ) may attain it sooner or later.