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Everett J. Mitchell II goes back to his journalistic roots, taking the managing editor job at the Detroit News.

Everett J. Mitchell II goes back to his journalistic roots, taking the managing editor job at the Detroit News . The 37-year-old executive editor of Salem, Oregon1s Statesman Journal had worked at the News from 1989 until '93. "It was a place in which I was able to do some really good work during my first tour of duty there as a reporter and an editor," he says. Mitchell had been deputy city editor when he embarked on a nationwide tour of other Gannett properties, first as assistant managing editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer . He jumped to the News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, as managing editor in 1997, before serving a one-year stint in Oregon. Detroit News Publisher and Editor Mark Silverman says he's been tracking Mitchell since he noticed the young editor in a Gannett development program in the mid-'90s. "What I think E.J. is good at is really sizing up how communities change and how we need newspaper coverage" to fit those fluctuations, he says. Mitchell replaces Jennifer Carroll , who becomes director of news development for Gannett. The new ME is excited about a lead role in a two-paper town. "Just never a dull moment in Detroit," Mitchell says.