It won't be long before the Telegraph starts seeing other motoring columnists, and James starts seeing other newspapers. They'll remain friends anyway and may, in the future, run into each other at a mutual acquaintances Holiday Party where they'll exchange awkward hello-how-are-yas and privately think about the good times they had and wonder where things went awry. The Telegraph will be happy to see James writing better than ever for his new paper, James will be happy to see the Telegraph with its shiny new columnist. Yes, they had good times, but it truly was time to move on...
Unless, of course, James learns that the columnist had been seeing the Telegraph in their six month trial break up. In that case, he hopes they'll be miserable together.