Veteran newspaperman Ian Lamont was named publisher of The Santa Clarita Valley Signal on Tuesday.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Lamont immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and earned a BS in Business from SUNY at Fredonia, N.Y. and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J.

He began his newspaper career as an accountant at Dow Jones Ottaway, owner of 13 daily newspapers. He rose to assistant controller and tax manager before he was recruited by McClatchy Co. newspapers and went to work in the firm's Sacramento corporate office in 1983.

Lamont rose to the position of director of internal audit and taxes and, in 1987, became CFO at the Fresno Bee.

In 1991 he became general manager of the Tri-Cities in Washington state, and in 1995 advanced to publisher there.

After a one-year involvement in a start-up waste-to-energy firm, Lamont became publisher of the Long Beach Press-Telegram. In 2004, when Media News reorganized its California newspapers into Los Angeles and Alameda News Groups, Lamont became CEO and publisher of the firm's Northern California group, which consisted of 11 newspapers whose flagship was the Oakland Tribune.

"Ian's experience in building new revenue streams, understanding the value of community content that engages readers both in print and online, problem solving, team building, and providing community-minded leadership will serve our employees and the Santa Clarita market well," said Charles Hill Morris Jr., regional manager for the Morris Newspaper Corp. "I am pleased to have him on our management team."

Lamont retired from Media News in 2005 and became involved in the Small Business Development Center of Long Beach. While there he met Paul De La Cerda of the Small Business Development Center at College of the Canyons, occasionally visiting the Santa Clarita Valley for SBDC meetings.

"I saw the Santa Clarita Valley as a very vibrant community with a sense of energy that a lot of communities don't have," Lamont said Tuesday.

Lamont said he's delighted to be back at a community newspaper.

"By far the best time I had was running the paper in Washington state - a community newspaper," he said. "I look forward to ... learning more about the communities we serve here at The Signal."

Lamont has been married for 34 years; he and his wife, Oksanna, have two sons: Shawn, 31, and Evan, 26.

The Lamonts make their home in Long Beach but expect to move to the Santa Clarita Valley in the coming months.

Lamont can be reached at (661) 902-5501 or via e-mail at ilamont@the-signal.com.