An editor who's in charge of the paper he joined as a junior 40 years ago has told of the "buzz" he gets from dealing with the news.

Dave Russell's time at the Barking and Dagenham Post has taken in the swinging 60s, changes to the paper - and the industry - and the end of three-hour lunches at the pub.

But he hasn't spent all his career at the same title... the 59-year-old took time away to edit newspapers in Havering, Ilford and Rayleigh.

Dave first joined the paid-for weekly Post in 1964 as a junior reporter, when it was owned by a family-run firm, and later became news editor and then deputy editor. He returned to become editor 12 years ago.

When he first joined he never imagined that he would one day become the editor, and instead enjoyed being a reporter in the 'swinging 60s', interviewing stars such as Sandy Shaw and David Essex.

Dave said: "Before that I had been an office boy at The People, but when you turned 18 none of the unions would give you a card and you had to go.

"Sam Campbell was the editor at that time and before I left he called me into his office and said 'you look more like a sub to me' - and the old boy was right!"

Dave won his first editorship when the company bought a group of newspapers at Rayleigh and promoted him to take charge. It was during his time there he met his wife, Julie.

He said: "I was appointed editor - but what they didn't tell me was that the paper didn't have any full-time staff!

"There was just a strange group of freelances, which was a bit disconcerting, but eventually this changed.

"When Julie joined the paper we were both already married, but we lost our partners in the same year.

"We have been married for 23 years and worked together for 30 years before she retired from her job as news editor of the Post last year."

Dave has also seen countless changes to the paper and the industry, including the sale of the Post to Independent News and Media, and then more recently, Archant.

He said: "It's totally changed. When I first joined we had pre-war typewriters which you had to hammer your copy out on, and we three hour lunches in the pub - but you found a lot of your stories in the pub.

"It's a different culture now, with the volume of pages you have to produce you wouldn't get the paper out. You have to be much more disciplined now."