The Gazette-Times has a new publisher - Mike McInally.

McInally comes to the GT from the Missoulian newspaper in Missoula, Mont., where he has worked the last eight years as its editor.

McInally, 48, succeeds Brenda Speth, who left the GT in July to become publisher of the Napa Valley Register in Napa, Calif. Speth had been publisher of the Gazette-Times since 2001. All three papers are owned by Lee Enterprises Inc.

Martha Wells, publisher of the Albany Democrat-Herald and group publisher of Lee's mid-valley newspapers, had served as interim publisher of the GT.

Wells and Lee Vice President John VanStrydonck introduced McInally on Tuesday.

"I've had the pleasure of working with Mike the last three years at the Missoulian," VanStrydonck said. "He is a first-class journalist and a leader of high integrity. He will help the Gazette-Times serve the community even better than in the past.

"When I offered him this job, I also promised he'd get the opportunity to live in one of the best communities in the United States," VanStrydonck added.

Said McInally: "I'm really looking forward to living and working in Corvallis. It was going to take a very special community to pull my family and me away from Missoula, and Corvallis looks like it fits the bill."

McInally started work at the Missoulian as a police-and-courts reporter in 1980. He worked there as an assistant news editor, features editor and city editor before being named editor in 1997.

During his tenure as editor, the Missoulian three times was named the best newspaper in Montana in the Montana Newspaper Association's annual contest and won three Lee President's Awards for News, among the company's highest honors. He also helped develop and edited a monthly business magazine and a variety of statewide publications for Lee newspapers in Montana.

McInally has been active in the Montana Newspaper Association and served on the board of the Montana Freedom of Information Hotline, a service that allowed reporters and other members of the public free legal advice on access to public meetings and documents. In 2003, he helped organize a statewide survey of how well Montana counties were following state laws on access to public records.

He helped to form the Missoula Community Foundation and is a member of Missoula's University Congregational Church (United Church of Christ). He is a member of the University of Montana School of Journalism advisory board, and is a graduate of that school. He has served on the Girl Scouts of Big Sky Council board of directors, the Missoula Police Department Citizen Advisory Board, the United Way of Missoula County, a parent-education nonprofit agency and with a variety of other Missoula organizations.

His wife, Diane, is a certified public accountant. They have two daughters, Shannon, 16, a sophomore in high school, and Samantha, 13, a seventh-grade student.

A movie buff, McInally wrote a video column for the Missoulian for many years and will give that up, "with reluctance." He and his daughter Samantha both are learning to play the saxophone and will be looking, he said, for a sax teacher with unusual patience.

Lee Enterprises, which is based in Davenport, Iowa, owns 52 daily newspapers and has a joint interest in six others. Lee also operates online services and more than 300 weekly newspapers, shoppers and classified and specialty publications.

On the Net: www.lee.net.