Jeff Bezos announces ‘significant shift’ coming to the Washington Post. A key editor is leaving because of it

CNN — Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday announced a “significant shift” to the publisher’s opinion page that led David Shipley, the paper’s editorial page editor, to leave the paper. Jeff Stein, the publisher’s chief economics reporter, called the overhaul a “massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos” that makes it clear “dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.” “I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know,” Stein said on X. Amanda Katz, who stepped down from her role on the Post’s opinion team at the end of 2024, called the change “an absolute abandonment of the principles of accountability of the powerful, justice, democracy, human rights, and accurate information that previously animated the section in favor of a white male billionaire’s self-interested agenda.” And columnist Philip Bump, who pens the Post’s weekly “How to Read This Chart” newsletter, pithily said “what the actual f**k” on Bluesky. Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA founder, hailed the change as “the culture changing rapidly for the better.” And Elon Musk, whose SpaceX is a direct rival of Bezos’ Blue Origins, succinctly applauded on X, saying “Bravo, @JeffBezos!” Following the transformation’s internal announcement, Will Lewis, the paper’s publisher and chief executive, noted in an internal email obtained by CNN that the “recalibrate” was “not about siding with any political party,” but, rather, about “being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper.” “Doing this is a critical part of serving as a premier news publication across America and for all Americans,” Lewis wrote to Post staffers. As reported by the Daily Beast, Marty Baron, the Post’s former executive editor, said he was “sad and disgusted” by Bezos’ demands, emphasizing that the Amazon and Blue Origin founder “has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post, and he is betraying The Post’s longstanding principles to do so.” Meanwhile, Cameron Barr, a former senior managing editor for the Post, said in a LinkedIn post that he would end his “professional association” with the newspaper, saying Bezos’ changes represent “an unacceptable erosion of its commitment to publishing a healthy diversity of opinion and argument.” And David Maraniss, a longtime Post editor and Pulitzer Prize winner, said on Bluesky that he would “never write for again as long as the owner.” Bezos and the Post’s new direction The divisive overhaul comes months after Bezos blocked the opinion page’s endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris at the eleventh hour, ending decades of precedent.