Quotes of the Week: From Newsquest's salami slicing to the workie who took on the Indy

Frank le Duc, ex-deputy editor of The Argus, Brighton, on this blog: "Newsquest has used a salami slicing technique which has its limitations. You can slice the salami only so many times before there’s no meat left. Perhaps more aptly you can cut the cost of feeding your goose but don’t be surprised if it keeps laying fewer golden eggs until you end up strangling the scraggy old bird."

President Obama's spiritual adviser Rev. Jim Wallis in the Independent: "The Murdoch/Fox News channel is trying to religiously assassinate Barack Obama."

Simon Heffer in the Telegraph: "There are a number of people in my trade around the world who have the blood of Diana, Princess of Wales on their hands because of how she was pursued literally to her death in 1997. We cannot control the foreign press; but the bottom-feeders of the British media should be aware of one thing regarding Kate Middleton. Any treatment of her that smacks of prurience, unfairness, impropriety or cruelty will go down exceptionally badly with the British public."

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger giving the Andrew Olle Media Lecture in Australia: "Something is dangerously out of kilter when elected members of parliament confess – as they recently have – that they have held back from probing into, or criticising, one particular media company for fear of what that company might do to them. Or when that company's former employees – who know what went on and also what the company is capable of – are too frightened to speak publicly about what they know."

Alan Geere, editor-in-chief of the Essex Chronicle Media Group and editorial director of Northcliffe Media South East, on his blog: "Earlier in the week I’d been walking with dinosaurs at the Society of Editors annual conference in Glasgow. A largely uninspiring selection of self-important big-wigs trooped on stage to tell it like it was/is/will be, few of them displaying any of the verve, excitement and ability to have a go that marks out the real leaders in journalism."

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent: "Perhaps the most damaging effect of "embedding" is to soften the brutality of any military occupation and underplay hostile local response to it. Above all, the very fact of a correspondent being with an occupying army gives the impression that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries which have endured 30 years of crisis and warfare, can be resolved by force."

Jack Wood posts on HoldtheFrontPage about Northcliffe's latest results: "I suspect the people making the cost cuts have not seen their wage packets getting smaller through this nasty experience. And when the bigwigs see their kids on Christmas morning opening their presents - think about the guys you laid off/sacked/pushed who won't have such a great experience. This might sound corny and ghost of Christmas past, but just consider how many people were forced to move in last year's reshaping of sub desks and how many are out of work now. Merry Christmas Northcliffe managing editors and a slashed new year to you all...."

Girish Gupta, who billed the Independent after doing two weeks' work experience, on this blog: "I'm sure I won't be having too many bylines in the Independent anytime soon but I hope that other editors can see that I'm doing what I believe to be right. Journalism is meant to be about outing what you think is wrong so hopefully I am doing that."