The Washington Post’s famously left-wing editorial page will undergo a severe ideological swerve under a dramatic policy change announced Wednesday by owner Jeff Bezos, a move that prompted the resignation of the opinion section’s editor.

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” said Mr. Bezos in a statement on X. “We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

The billionaire Amazon founder also said David Shipley, the opinion editor, declined an offer to lead the page’s new direction.

“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,’” said Mr. Bezos. “After careful consideration, David decided to step away.”

Mr. Bezos said the newspaper will undertake a hiring search for an opinion editor willing “to own this new direction.” The 61-year-old Mr. Shipley, who oversaw the paper’s editorials and its Opinions section, had been in the position since July 2022.

The move to upend the newspaper’s editorial viewpoint comes as the most significant in a series of shifts in the past year under Mr. Bezos, most notably when the opinion page declined to give its traditional endorsement to a presidential candidate in the 2024 election between Republican Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

Mr. Bezos, who bought the newspaper in 2013, cited the changing media landscape and his support for American values with influencing his decision. He did not suggest any changes were coming to The Post’s news coverage.

“There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views,” he said. “Today, the internet does that job.”

He added that “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so.”

“Our country did not get here by being typical,” Mr. Bezos said. “And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.”

He said he shared the changes Wednesday morning with the newspaper’s staff, and there was already some staff pushback online as the news leaked out.

Post economics reporter Jeff Stein spoke out on Bluesky and X, condemning the changes.

“Massive encroachment by Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section – makes clear dissenting views will not be published,” Mr. Stein wrote in his post. “I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.