The death has been announced of Brian Doel, owner of the Liskeard-based regional West Country Sunday Independent.

Mr Doel, who retired as group managing director of the Tindle Newspaper Group in May 2014, died while he and his wife were in Cornwall on Saturday night. As MD of the Tindle group he had been in charge of the Cornish Times.

Only hours before his death he had been assisting with the 200-year-old Sunday Independent’s latest edition.

Born in Dundee, Mr Doel spent his whole life in newspapers.

When he took over a majority holding in the Sunday Independent a little over two years ago, it marked a 40-year association with the paper.

Under his stewardship, the Sunday Independent became a sports and leisure-led newspaper, moving to new premises on the outskirts of Liskeard.

Sports editor and editor-in-chief John Collings said: ‘We have all been deeply shocked by this sudden and sad news.

‘Brian always played an active role in this newspaper, contributing on a daily basis and had been with us on Saturday helping to get the paper out.

‘I don’t think he could ever retire; newspapers, especially local newspapers with their communities at heart, were what drove him on.

‘We are all determined to maintain his work ethos, his principles and his objectives to make the Indy even better still; it’s what he would have wanted and it’s what he will get.’

Mr Doel’s connections with the Tindle group had continued, as he also oversaw the company’s successful radio stations in the Channel Islands and Ireland.

Sir Ray Tindle, Chairman of the Tindle Newspaper Group, said: ’Brian had been a superb CEO, a brilliant editor and a friend to everyone.

’He was the man who took on the onerous task of running our group of almost 200 papers and radio stations when I first went down with cancer. He took the group including radio to new heights.

’I am shocked and greatly saddened by the loss of Brian.’

Mr Doel, who was 70, is survived by his wife, Sam, and daughter, Alexandra.

No funeral details have yet been announced.