Jon Perez, 35, the new city editor of the Gilroy Dispatch, was at the Rocky Mountain News for five years. He handled a number of jobs there from online editing to designing the front page.

When the Rocky closed last year, he returned to his roots in San Jose with his wife and two young daughters and tried his hand as a poker floorman and a food vendor, only to be reminded that his true passion was in journalism.

According to the Dispatch, Perez graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. An internship reporting on crime and covering sports for the San Jose Mercury News preceded positions as a page designer at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., and the Tribune in San Luis Obispo. (Photo credit: Dispatch website)