Washington Post Opinion Editor Resigns After One Year

(Photo by Mehmet Eser / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

The Washington Post’s opinion editor, Adam O’Neal, announced that he’s stepping down just one year after he was hired by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos.

In an internal memo to colleagues on Friday, O’Neal said he would leave his post on Aug. 31.

“I joined The Post to lead the opinion section as it began a new chapter, and we have made dramatic changes over the past year,” O’Neal wrote. “We quickly embraced our mission of championing free markets and personal liberties while simultaneously putting Post Opinions on a sustainable footing.”

O’Neal added, “While this was not an easy decision, I am leaving proud of how far the opinion section has come and optimistic that its best days lie ahead.”

Last June, O’Neal replaced David Shipley, who quit after Bezos announced the Opinions section would start reaching out to a more conservative audience by hiring three new conservative writers.

O’Neal, who was dubbed “right-leaning” by the New York Post, previously worked for The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.

Reason’s Nick Gillespie interviewed O’Neal for his podcast in 2025 for an episode titled, “Is The Washington Post Becoming Libertarian?”

O’Neal said then that it was important for WaPo to reach beyond its mostly left-leaning readership.

“I don’t think it’s a great business model to have one sort of mono—it’s not entirely monolithic—but one very similar audience,” O’Neal said. “And so we’re trying to continue to serve our existing subscribers, who we value, while also looking at people—I don’t know, like my dad—who frankly never would have subscribed to The Washington Post, who just wouldn’t have trusted it, and say, ‘Look, we’re doing things different at the opinion section.'”

Post publisher Jeff D’Onofrio wrote in his own memo, “This past year, under the leadership of Adam O’Neal, Post Opinions has become more balanced in perspective, more financially sustainable and more accessible to readers than ever before.”

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