Guardian’s rethink over who “calls the shots” at Indy

The reappearance of Simon Kelner in today’s Media Guardian 100, the ‘definitive guide to the people who really matter in the media”, will surely have left some members of the selection panel rather red-faced.

Why? Go back 12 months and this is how the Guardian justified removing from the list the Independent managing director and editor-in-chief, and introducing Indy editor Roger Alton at No. 48: ‘It is Alton who now wields the power at the daily paper, said our panel, not Kelner. ‘Roger has still got it all to do but I think he will put the Independent on the map,’ said one panellist. ‘Alton is the one that matters, not Kelner. He is the one calling the shots.”

But what is the panel saying now? ‘Events of the past 12 months have thrust him [Kelner] firmly back into centre stage.’Which can also be translated as: ‘The panel really made an utter balls-up of this one.”

Kelner returns at No. 57. Alton is kicked off the list.

Meanwhile, The Guardian puts current Observer editor John Mulholland firmly in his place by once again failing to include him in the top 100. The editors of The Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday win a place but the Guardian’s stablemate is snubbed. While Alton was in charge of The Obs, he was always included on the list.