It was around day 11 that women started their incursion into the front line of the war with Iraq. The appearance of Julia Roberts, Emma Noble and Liz Hurley on the front pages of the tabloids was the first sign of editorial fatigue. By day 18 we had taken Basra and the Daily Mail marked the victory with the South Beach Diet on its skyline -- lose a stone in two weeks.

Like thousands of readers, I'm on the diet and off the war, especially now swift victory seems assured. It is interesting how all the newspapers, except the Independent, have started running heavy front-page promotions for anything from France for [pounds sterling]69 in the Times to the Guardian's River Cafe Cookbook.

Times are hard, sales are down and the relentless war coverage is starting to turn readers away.

The real signal that the end was nigh came in the Mail when it was first to run with a non-war splash. It led instead on the army major and his wife found guilty of cheating on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? It filled the first five pages with this tale of grubby middle-class greed.

The major and his wife are guilty of theft -- on a very big and calculated scale. That neither was jailed makes a mockery of our judicial system. If they had stolen a million from the National Lottery with a counterfeit ticket, would that just be treated as a jolly jape? Or diddled the taxman out of a million? I think not.

If they'd been a couple of Scousers on the social who had embezzled a million, I doubt that they would have been sent home with a slap on the wrists.

No awards, but a medal to the Independent and Independent on Sunday. For sheer integrity; consistency and resourcefulness in their war coverage, I applaud them. Saturday's "The toll of war" front page, which listed the plain facts of this war, was masterful. So was the Sindy's "Battle of Baghdad" front page -- simple, brutal, powerful. Their efforts are all the more commendable when you consider that, in terms of resources, the battle between the Indys and the other broadsheets is about as evenly matched as that between the US and Iraqi air power. Robert Fisk has performed above and beyond.

Word that Conrad Black is considering a bid for Trinity Mirror's national newspaper titles was met, unofficially, with a one-word response that rhymes with buttocks. The beleaguered Financial Times is, however, a more credible target. Of all the national titles, the FT has been hit hardest by the availability of online information. The downturn in the City has hardly helped sales either.

When you dissect the paper's figures, of a total sale of 451,799 only around a third is sold in the UK at full rate, and a huge 302,095 are sold overseas, where accounting procedures are, shall we say, less than rigorous for all titles.

Christa D'Souza wrote with piercing insight into the marriage of Liza Minnelli and David Gest for the Telegraph Magazine. Eyebrows have been raised over the validity of the union, but what woman wouldn't adore a man who sorts out the height of your customised Jimmy Choo stilettos?

Gest says what he loves most about Liza is her left breast, because that's where he's rested his head every night since they fell in love 18 months ago.

No such consolation for newly-wed Russell Crowe. His bride, Danielle Spencer, makes Tara Palmer-Tomkinson look well endowed. If she really did pay Giorgio Armani [pounds sterling]100,000 for that frightful little frock, she should sue.

Arriving in London in 1985 looking for work, I was told that the only place for media jobs, or any jobs for that matter, was the Guardian. Not much has changed in nearly 20 years. Many have attempted to loosen the Guardian's stranglehold on the classified ad job market -- as MD of the Independent, I also tried -- but all have failed, so far. In what can only be described as an audacious move, the Times has launched its new Public Agenda section -- covering the public sector, education and health. Intriguingly, it carries a classified listings service free to recruiters, a section that's sure to burgeon once advertisers know about it, and could well take business away from the Guardian. The editorial approach is eclectic and engaging. Unlike the Guardian, it is a PC-free zone, proving that dullness is not a prerequisite for working in the public sector.

The Times's 24-page section was met with a withering 68-page response on launch day by the Guardian -- and that was the Education section alone. All that matters to advertisers is response -- volume and quality. It takes time for a new product to get bedded in. The management at News International should give this the time it deserves to develop.

David and Goliath maybe, but we all know how that ended up.

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