Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said on Wednesday that his newspaper will undergo a “significant shift” in its opinion section, focusing more on the “support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
Bezos, who has criticized his paper for its “continuing fall in credibility,” announced the change in a note to Washington Post staff on Wednesday morning.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else,” Bezos wrote. “Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.” Bezos said the Post will “cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Bezos added that he offered David Shipley, the current editorial page editor, the opportunity to remain in charge, but only if he was 100% on board with the new direction. Shipley, however, “decided to step away.”
“I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no.’ After careful consideration, David decided to step away,” the Amazon founder added. “This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.”
In October 2024, Bezos reportedly urged the Post to hire more conservative columnists as the newspaper faced massive subscription cancellations. Many of the 200,000 cancellations were in response to the Post declining to endorse a presidential candidate in the 2024 election after it backed Democrats in each of the previous four presidential races.
Bezos has grown increasingly warm toward President Donald Trump, donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and attending the inauguration. One month before Trump was sworn in for a second term, Bezos said he was “very optimistic” about Trump’s plans and then dined with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago.
“He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” Bezos added during a December interview. “And my point of view, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him because we do have too much regulation in this country. This country is so set up to grow.”
Bezos says the paper’s shift to defending personal liberties and free markets is an attempt to revive viewpoints that he believes are “underserved” in the current state of “news opinion.”
“I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America,” he said. “I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”