X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were used to investigate the influence of Ni ions on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of nickelferrites (Ni x Fe 3-x O 4 ). Spinel Ni x Fe 3-x O 4 (x ≤ 0.96) samples were prepared as polycrystalline thin films on Al 2 O 3 (0001) substrates, using a sol-gel method. XRD patterns of the nickel-ferrites indicate that as the Ni composition increases (x > 0.3), a structural phase transition takes place from cubic to tetragonal lattice. The XPS results imply that the Ni ions in Ni x Fe 3-x O 4 substitute for the octahedral sites of the spinel lattice, mostly with the ionic valence of +2. The minority-spin d-electrons of the Ni 2+ ions are mainly distributed below the Fermi level (E F ), at around 3 eV; while those of the Fe 2+ ions are distributed closer to E F (~1 eV below E F ). The magnetic hysteresis curves of the Ni x Fe 3-x O 4 films measured by VSM show that as x increases, the saturation magnetization (M s ) linearly decreases. The decreasing trend is primarily attributable to the decrease in net spin magnetic moment, by the Ni 2+ (2 µ B ) substitution for octahedral Fe 2+ (4 µ B ) site.