Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006 - 4:26 pm:

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Gannett Co. Inc. has ended the tenure of Tennessean editor Everett "E.J." Mitchell after 21 tumultuous months, replacing him with a former editor and publisher of The Detroit News who was Mitchell's boss before he moved to Nashville.

Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain, introduced Mark Silverman to staffers this morning as the Nashville daily's new editor. Silverman most recently headed Gannett News Service, based in McLean, Va., after holding the top job in Detroit from 1997 until 2005. He has been an editor at various Gannett papers since 1986. The company named him its editor of the year in 1999 and 2001.

In a newsroom meeting, Silverman told the staff his goal is to "make journalism fun again," according to a source familiar with his comments. The allusion is apparently to morale issues Silverman has learned about firsthand.

Numerous well-established journalists have left The Tennessean since Mitchell took over in December 2004. . . .

Mitchell, who was the first African-American editor-in-chief at The Tennessean, will now become executive editor of Gannett's Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J. In addition to the staff departures, widespread public dissatisfaction with the editorial quality of the newspaper and stagnant circulation figures marked his time at the helm in Nashville.

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The outgoing (some would say arrogant) Mitchell, who'd promised upon his arrival in December 2004 to meet personally with every newsroom staffer, was more of a mysterious corner-office figure than a coach to his reportorial minions. Most--staffers never met him personally.

Then there was the exclamation point fiasco -- E.J. wanted them on the section front of Living every day, publisher Ellen Leifeld didn't -- followed by the six-month investigative series about "The Cost of Murder" that was neither surprising nor compelling.

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