Ferrite powder samples of Mn x Ni 1-x Fe 2 O 4 (0.0 x 1.0) with single phase (A)[B] 2 O 4 spinel structure were prepared using a sol-gel method. Following the successful proposal by our group, that the magnetic moment directions of Cr 2þ (3d 4 ) cations are antiparallel to those of Fe 3þ (3d 5 ) and Fe 2þ (3d 6 ) cations in a given sublattice of the Cr-doped spinel ferrites due to the constraints imposed by Hund's rules, we extend here the same idea and assume that the magnetic moment directions of Mn 3þ (3d 4 ) cations are also antiparallel to those of Mn 2þ (3d 5 ) and divalent and trivalent Fe (Ni) cations in a given sublattice of Mn-doped spinel ferrites. We have thereby obtained cation distributions for the samples by fitting the magnetic moments of the samples at 10 K. The results indicate that 72% of the Mn cations occupy the [B] sites in MnFe 2 O 4 , which is close to the results for Ni (82%) in NiFe 2 O 4 , but is different from the result obtained using the conventional view which yields 80% of the Mn cations in the (A) sites of MnFe 2 O 4 . On the basis of the present analyses of the magnetic structure of Mn x Ni 1-x Fe 2 O 4 (0.0 x 1.0), we propose here a new model for spinel ferrites that is distinctly different from both the super-and the doubleexchange model and that we refer to as the O2p itinerant electron model. Using this model, not only can the magnetic structure of the spinel ferrites MFe 2 O 4 (M ¼ Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) be explained better than by using the super-and doubleexchange interaction models, but also the magnetic structure and the cation distributions of Cr-, Mn-, and Ti-doped spinel ferrites can be explained.