Seems like it’s still all-change in liberal-newspaper-land, with the news that Roger Alton—who recently resigned from the editorship of the Observer over bitter clashes with “senior figures” at the Guardian—may soon replace Simon Kelner as editor of the Independent (Kelner would step up into a senior management role).

Alton’s arrival would certainly be an exciting tonic for Britain’s youngest broadsheet, and would surely mark a more aggressive stance towards the Guardian’s traditional dominance of the centre-left audience. There is, after all, little love lost between Alton and his erstwhile colleague, the Guardian’s Alan Rusbridger; and the Independent has already showed itself more than willing to enter the internecine fray. In April last year, they achieved something of a coup by letting Piers Morgan loose on Rusbridger in an interview that proved more than a little bruising for the latter—while just yesterday, the same Piers Morgan’s “my life in media” contained these timely observations on the Alton/Rusbridger divide:

Who in the media do you most admire and why?

Celia Walden. She has a magnificent body of work. And Alan Rusbridger, for managing to get rid of an editor who was winning awards and putting on sales, while saving his own skin despite winning fuck all and spending £80m on a crashingly dull relaunch that has lost circulation. Genius.

Morgan’s own talents are, of course, now gainfully being employed within the lucrative arena of American television. But his eye for the media remains sharp—and Rusbridger must already be wondering what whirlwinds he could reap.