THE Northern Echo's longest serving employee is celebrating 40 years with the newspaper.

Systems manager Geoff Elvish, 55, began work as an apprentice compositor on September 10, 1962.

He said: "When I started it was the old hot metal days and since then we've gone through an industrial revolution in the printing industry to the electronic age today."

In between, Mr Elvish has seen paper tape controlled computers in the 1970s, to cut and paste typesetting in the 1980s and on to the fully electronic operation of the present day.

He said: "To be working here for 40 years is a sobering thought. Some people might think it's a little bit sad in a way, but because there have been so many changes it's been an interesting experience over the years and that's made a big difference."

Mr Elvish, who has no immediate plans to retire, was given a presentation in front of colleagues to mark the occasion.