Washington Post’s opinion editor resigns after just one year in role

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 and its unpopular publisher, Will Lewis, abruptly resigned.

But on Friday, staffers were shocked to find out that Adam O’Neal, a millennial hired last year to lead its opinion section, was already leaving.

In a memo to colleagues in the paper’s opinion section titled “A Remarkable Year”, O’Neal 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’Neal was on the verge of leaving the publication.

“It has been a remarkable year, and I’m very proud of everything we’ve accomplished together,” he wrote in the memo obtained by the Guardian. “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.”

In the memo, O’Neal nodded to the controversial decision last year by owner Jeff Bezos to reorient the paper’s opinion section to focus on championing free markets and personal liberties, a move that served to alienate many subscribers.

“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. We quickly embraced our mission of championing free markets and personal liberties while simultaneously putting Post Opinions on a sustainable footing,” he wrote.

“Our 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.”

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

Following O’Neal’s announcement, Jeff D’Onofrio, who took over as the interim publisher after Lewis departed, emailed the entire staff with the subject line “Thank You Adam.”

“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,” he wrote. “I want to thank him for his leadership and hard work in reimagining the section.”

Still, it’s 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’Neal’s predecessor, the veteran journalist David Shipley, resigned 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 to take a buyout in the summer of 2025 and leave the publication.

Looking ahead, D’Onofrio said the Post would “work to transition Post Opinions leadership”, with more information to come at a later date.

O’Neal, 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’s opinion desk.

Sensing he was not widely known to the Post’s staff, he introduced himself with a vertical video posted by the newspaper’s public relations account on X.

“Now odds are, you’ve probably never heard of me, and you might be wondering, ‘Who am I?’” he said in the video at the time. “That’s actually kind of a deep and philosophical question, and I’m not sure I went to school long enough to understand it. But I’ve been a journalist for a while, and I’d like to share some of our plans with you.”