TWO heads of a rival newspaper group were invited to the Kent Messenger Group's headquarters in Larkfield.

Chairman, Edwin Boorman, gave Paul Kearney, managing director of the Courier Newspaper Group, and Paul Newman, its deputy managing director and finance director, a guided tour of the newsroom, advertising department and the press hall.

It was the first time the two executives of the Oxfordshire-based company had seen inside the KM's hub of operations.

Penny Dyson, Mr Boorman's personal assistant, said: "It was the first time that they had come, though not the first time the managing director of the Courier Group has been here."