The feral beast: Dank you very much

It's onwards and upwards for the Evening Standard, which continues to sign up big names. The BBC's workaholic ex-sports editor, Mihir Bose, right, is a new addition, and there is talk of former Spectator editor Matthew d'Ancona becoming a columnist. There was a time when Danks was regularly teased by the Standard's Londoner's Diary, but those days may now be over.

Goodbye Duncan, hello ... Lygo?

Thoughtful of Andy Duncan to quit as head of C4 ahead of the RTS conference in Cambridge last week, prompting much jostling to succeed him. The smart money is on Kevin Lygo, currently director of television and content at the station, whom insiders say has not had a conversation with Duncan in two years. This bizarre arrangement is not the result of a row, but of Duncan's somewhat distant management style. Duncan was in high spirits at Cambridge, and Lygo, as it happens, was nowhere to be seen.

Guardian cuts its stringers

The Observer may be safe, but it's curtains for other strands of Guardian News and Media. Stringers for The Guardian have been told their services will no longer be required, and to find work elsewhere. It's the first step in a drive to cut staffing levels as announced by editor Alan Rusbridger in a note to staff last week. The U-turn on The Obs raises questions over Rusbridger's authority. He is believed to have adopted a "back me or sack me" stance over his plans to close the 218-year-old paper.

Tricky timing, Orr what?

But The Guardian's not completely strapped for cash. The comment pages have a new star signing – former Independent columnist Deborah Orr, right. A quality appointment, but the timing has gone down like the proverbial cup of cold sick among staffers now facing redundancy.

Don't tiptoe around Spartacus

In his first book, Thirty Days: An Inside Account of Tony Blair at War, he tiptoed around the former PM's part in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. So let's hope Peter Stothard, the editor of The Times Literary Supplement, packs some more punches into his new book, a biography of Spartacus, the slave turned super-hero. The former Times editor is bashful about his efforts, and is astonished to find it already being hyped on Amazon, despite not coming out until January. Little is known about Spartacus, even though the 1960 film, starring Kirk Douglas, has prompted generations of schoolboys to declare: "I'm Spartacus!"

Jobs? Easy does it

A splendid Greek wedding – Guardian Jobs has allied itself with easyJobs, one of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's garish orange offshoots. With Starbucks already a partner, staff at The Guardian are beginning to wonder whatever happened to their environmental credentials.