IT was OUR turn to be in the news rather than reporting the local happenings, on Tuesday! The Cornish & Devon Post and its important role within the local community were featured in the 'Financial Times' and on BBC Radio in a live phone-in programme.

Next to a feature showing the problems of falling revenue and sales at other newspaper groups was an article with the headline 'Cornish and Devon profits from tradition."

By Ben Fenton, it began: "You will have to look hard for a news story on the front page of the Cornish & Devon Post. Not since its first edition in 1856 has it seen the need to change its policy of carrying advertisements on the front page where readers can most easily find them."

"Inside the the broadsheet pages, however, there is a stream of stories about the towns and villages..."

"The Cornish & Devon Post remains one of the most profitable of Sir Ray Tindle's 67 newspaper operations round the country..."

Mr Keith Whitford, the editor of the 'Post' said: "We feel the adverts on our front page help to give us a readily recognisable identity and reflect our roots in a community where farming and its offshoots are extremely important.

"We pride ourselves on reflecting all the happenings in local communities from the parish council meeting through the agricultural shows to the WI gathering, from magistrates court to royal visits — all centred on names, faces and places.

"Names people know, faces they recognise and places with which they are familiar.

"We have an army of correspondents and a great team in our head office at Launceston and branch office at Bude, plus our distributor and newsagents, who are all dedicated to bringing you the local news and advertising.

"We are represented in some way in every town and village and, if it were possible, we would have an edition for each street!

"It is really the people's paper — it doesn't not belong to us."

Sir Ray is optimistic for the future of newspapers. He says: "We have other papers in the group with full colour and tabloid formats. But, on the whole, they have done slightly less well during this dreadful period than the Cornish & Devon Post.

"Once the recession is over, we will return to where we were — down a bit because of the internet, but up because the population is increasing."

WATCH out for our special Local News­paper Week features and coverage in May.