NEWSPAPER tycoon Sir Ray Tindle paid tribute to the staff, readers and advertisers during celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Mid- Devon Advertiser.

Guests of honour at the lunch – attended by more than 50 including staff, contributors, civic dignitaries and Friends of the Mid-Devon Advertiser – was comedy actress Penelope Keith, a personal friend of Sir Ray and star of TV hits including The Good Life and To The Manor Born and husband Rodney Timson.

Sir Ray, 86, head of a publishing empire of more than 200 titles across the country, said: 'The staff here today are the cream of the newspaper industry.

'It is they who have brought the Mid-Devon Advertiser safely through this dreadful recession so far and all the other previous ones as well as other crises which newspapers and other businesses have faced these last years and are still facing.