{"id":569074,"date":"2026-07-31T18:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569074\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:25:12","slug":"washington-posts-opinion-editor-resigns-after-just-one-year-in-role-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569074\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post\u2019s opinion editor resigns after just one year in role | Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post had realized a state of relative calm in the five months since the paper was turned upside down in February, when nearly half the newsroom was laid off<\/a> and its unpopular publisher, Will Lewis, abruptly<\/a> resigned<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But on Friday, staffers were shocked to find out that Adam O\u2019Neal, a millennial hired last year to lead its opinion section, was already leaving.<\/p>\n

In a memo to colleagues in the paper\u2019s opinion section titled \u201cA Remarkable Year\u201d, O\u2019Neal gave no reason for his departure, only saying that he had decided to leave and that 31 August would be his last day. Opinion staffers had been given no indication that O\u2019Neal was on the verge of leaving the publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a remarkable year, and I\u2019m very proud of everything we\u2019ve accomplished together,\u201d he wrote in the memo obtained by the Guardian. \u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the memo, O\u2019Neal nodded to the controversial decision last year by owner Jeff Bezos to reorient<\/a> the paper\u2019s opinion section to focus on championing free markets and personal liberties, a move that served to alienate<\/a> many subscribers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined The Post to lead the opinion section as it began a new chapter, and we have made dramatic changes over the past year. We quickly embraced our mission of championing free markets and personal liberties while simultaneously putting Post Opinions on a sustainable footing,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work has become more relevant, accessible and consequential. We regularly publish world-class journalism that finds the audience where it is. This includes agenda-setting columns; news-breaking op-eds; highly influential editorials; and social media content that reaches millions of new people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, one of the section\u2019s top priorities, the launch of a new video podcast called Make It Make Sense<\/a>, drew backlash on social media for what seemed like warmed-over hot takes and did not draw<\/a> a large viewership despite generous investment and support from the Post.<\/p>\n

Following O\u2019Neal\u2019s announcement, Jeff D\u2019Onofrio, who took over as the interim publisher after Lewis departed, emailed the entire staff with the subject line \u201cThank You Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis past year, under the leadership of Adam O\u2019Neal, Post Opinions has become more balanced in perspective, more financially sustainable and more accessible to readers than ever before,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI want to thank him for his leadership and hard work in reimagining the section.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Still, it\u2019s extremely unusual for a top Post leader to depart so quickly, particularly one who served as the face of a dramatic reorientation of the section. O\u2019Neal\u2019s predecessor, the veteran journalist David Shipley, resigned<\/a> after failing to convince Bezos to not move forward with his new mandate for the section, which made the work of many of its longtime writers no longer relevant. Many such writers were encouraged<\/a> to take a buyout in the summer of 2025 and leave the publication.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, D\u2019Onofrio said the Post would \u201cwork to transition Post Opinions leadership\u201d, with more information to come at a later date.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal, who was 33 years old when he was hired, was seen as an unusual selection, despite past work experience at the Economist and the Wall Street Journal\u2019s opinion desk.<\/p>\n

Sensing he was not widely known to the Post\u2019s staff, he introduced himself with a vertical video<\/a> posted by the newspaper\u2019s public relations account on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow odds are, you\u2019ve probably never heard of me, and you might be wondering, \u2018Who am I?\u2019\u201d he said in the video at the time. \u201cThat\u2019s actually kind of a deep and philosophical question, and I\u2019m not sure I went to school long enough to understand it. But I\u2019ve been a journalist for a while, and I\u2019d like to share some of our plans with you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Post had realized a state of relative calm in the five months since the paper was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-569074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}