Mike Lange of St. Albans, a former board member and treasurer for the Maine Press Association, has been named to be the association’s next executive director, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Jeff Ham, who has held the position since 2002.

Lange has close to 20 years of experience in newspapers, including jobs as general assignment and sports reporter, special sections writer, and editor of three weeklies. Before starting what he calls “my semiretirement,” he was editor of the Moosehead Messenger in Greenville, a free-lance writer for the Central Maine Newspapers, a staff reporter for the Eastern Gazette in Dexter, and editor of the Norway Advertiser-Democrat and the now-defunct Somerset Reporter in Skowhegan in the 1980s. Most recently, he has been a free-lance writer for the Central Maine Newspapers’ special sections and secretary of the 750-member Skowhegan-Madison Elks Lodge.

He was an MPA board member from 2001 to 2003, when he served as treasurer. Since then, he has been an individual member of the MPA.

The executive director is the MPA’s only paid staff person, working part-time. Among other things, the director produces the bimonthly bulletin, manages its Web site, manages its finances, coordinates events and board meetings, and works with the board and the association’s law firm on legislative issues.