Roger’s approach will be that doing a good newspaper is not rocket science says John Mulholland editor

“Roger’s approach will be that doing a good newspaper is not rocket science,” says John Mulholland, editor of Sporting Life and Alton’s former media editor at The Guardian. Under Will Hutton, the previous editor and now editor-in-chief of The Observer, a climate of division developed that saw Hutton and his supporters pitted against his deputy, Jocelyn Targett, and supporters of Targett’s radical plans for the newspaper.Under Hutton’s predecessor the atmosphere was, if anything, even worse. “It will be about good stories well presented and executed.”Unlike some of his predecessors, he is unlikely to initiate a mass clear- out of staff. Andrew Jaspan quickly alienated many Observer old hands and was himself frustrated at his inability, thanks to a strong union, to get rid of those he did not rate.”If anyone can pull people together it is Roger,” says one senior Guardian executive. “He is hugely popular because of his energy, and even if you did have reservations about his judgement, you still had to respect him.”After five years of changing editors and numerous increasingly radical redesigns, The Observer is likely to achieve some stability under Alton.

The only half-negative story heard by this writer is a tale of his getting cramp in his leg while dancing at a hip drum ‘n’ bass club, and having to limp off the dance floor.
And his popularity should have professional implications for his new job. Now he has the climb of his life – dragging the circulation, the morale and the look of his new paper back to its previous heights. He starts off with a backpack full of goodwill, for he is a man universally liked and admired. ROGER ALTON, the new editor of The Observer, is a man obsessed with rock climbing Lunchtimes are spent on a climbing wall. Last year it was worse.If the market for independent and foreign films is not big enough to support art house cinemas, then a real benefit of digital technology could be its use as a new distribution system.

The downside is that it will not be possible to pick off just Film Four and pay for it separately. Nevertheless, it sounds at last like a killer application that will do a bit more than just make movie stars, football players and Australian media moguls richer.. In 1995 over 50 per cent of British films failed to make it to a cinema screen. Without Channel 4 there would have been no My Beautiful Laundrette, no Mike Leigh films such as Naked or Secrets and Lies and none of Ken Loach’s radical, difficult films such as Raining Stones.Many argue that Channel 4 should take a lot of credit for the fact that in 1996, the last year for which there are complete figures, there were 128 pictures made in the UK.Now, with Film Four, the channel has a solution to the problem thrown up by the success it has helped to create. Crucially it will be available as part of ONdigital’s terrestrial package, as part of Sky’s satellite digital package and on analogue cable and analogue satellite packages.