Washington Post opinion editor Adam O’Neal speaks out about paper’s challenges

SPECIAL – Not every day when a young journalist is not entrusted to completely overhaul the editorial pages of a large newspaper they attended. But this 33 -year -old man found O’Neal’s Washington Post.

“I feel a tremendous responsibility to do this right,” O’Neal said in his first interview since Fox News is the new view of Post. ” He said.

O’neal joined the task after serving as a reporter for the British outlet The Economist and as an editorial page writer for Wall Street Journal. The viral mission declaration “immediately attracted his attention”, the article owner of the article Jeff Bezos laid out in February and said that the Editorial pages of Post would develop “personal freedoms and free markets” and promise not to publish parts opposing these principles. Bezos’ zermisi immediately led to the resignation of O’neal’s predecessor David Shipley.

The basic principles of personal freedoms and free markets were the concepts of “insufficient service in the current media environment”.

O’Neal said, “However, it was very attractive to me to be able to start as the northern star, but to have the ability to build it as an intellectual basis, knowing that there are still personal freedoms for a big room in free markets and a solid discussion about the future of America.” He said. “And so when I started talking with writing, I could be very clear and directly about what I thought it means, and we went there. And when I learned more about the role and vision of the future, I was very eager to start working to change this place.”

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O’Neal calls the current status of editorial pages as “ongoing work” and says it will take time to reshape them. This involves redefining the sound of the editorial board, which he says still develops.

“So one day, ‘Hey, you know, the President has a good meaning about the Bagram Air Base,’ Isn’t it? The other time, we can praise the standing democrats. [New York City mayoral candidate Zohran] Mamdani and his radicalism. At the same time, we will criticize the Trump administration when we think they misunderstand. So, if someone thinks that our project is a president or only tactical partisan movements, I think it is really short -sized, and they just don’t read, watch or listen to us very closely. “He said.

However, the Post’s Pivot does not sound riskless. Bezos’s editorial announcement, resignations between the staff and a large wave of cancellation of the cancellation of Bezos, Post’un then President Kamala Harris’i at the time of the November elections only days before the time before the time of a major subscription wave fired.

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Jeff Bezos, a billionaire owner of the Washington Post, ordered the article to stop the approval of then President Kamala Harris during the election and to introduce the editorial pages “personal freedoms and free markets”. (Karwai Tang/Wireimage; Eric Baradat/AFP Getty Images)

“Our readers are liberal with an overwhelming majority?” O’neal accepted. “And all of them are in the blue states with an overwhelming majority. And they are excessively represented on the shores. And so, so, ‘if you are not a partisan and if you have an extremely partisan reader, they may be uncomfortable. And perhaps this is true.

“And frankly, many people do not trust the task. And they do not trust the mainstream media more broadly. And so my task will be able to hire people with different backgrounds, intellectual diversity from the United States and to object to this trust and rebuild.

“Do you not like very partisan readers anymore if we are not just a primer on one side? Where the growth is upwards, this is a very clear decision to rebuild this trust.

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O’Neal was excited to build his team because he aimed to find the idea of ​​finding people or a commodity merchant, and only the idea of ​​relying on Ivy League graduates and respected economists.

“I have a journalism degree, I’m sorry,” he confessed. “So some people can manage to pass [journalism school] Okay, but we just want to make such a wide network, and I think over time, it will be a strategic advantage to get the sounds and minds that are ignored in traditional way of thinking about journalism. “

David Shipley resigned in February as the Washington Post’s opinion editor in February after Bezos announced the pivot of the article on the editorial pages. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) through Getty Images)

What is important for diversity in news rooms is perhaps subject to discussion. Former Washington Post columnist who was expelled at the beginning of this month for the social media posts of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Karen Attiah is the last last black full -time idea columnist “and Washington is now” now ” [diverse] (Attiah sent a legal threat, claiming that he had been misinterpreted to the task since then).

He refused to comment on the personnel issues related to Attiah, and O’neal challenged the idea that his task meant that his task was deprived of the diversity of the editor team.

O’Neal, “We will consider every potential leasing equally. The quality of journalism, the background and the information they can bring to work.” He said.

“I don’t think that the vision section will be in a place where we have quotas, and we make people only take people because they have an unchanging features.” “I mean, I will never hire someone because of races, sex or something like that.”

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In the last few years in the Washington Post, significant financial losses have been turbulent between low morale in the news room, which escaped to competitor sales points and the news room. Will Lewis, a British media manager, will soon approach the two -year signs as the Post’s publisher and CEO, and confused feathers during the term of office in the article for the arrogant approach to leadership and challenging conversations. In June 2024, he told the staff in a famous way: “People do not read your belongings. I can’t make a confectionery anymore.” Lewis would later withdraw these words.

O’neal called Lewis a “a fantastic journalist who is really good in his business.”

“I came to this work with a tremendous respect and confidence in the will, and it just grew up.” He said. “He’s a wonderful mentor and the direction of travel. And we have the same values ​​when it comes to journalism and we want to take the task. Will’s work was absolutely great.”

O’Neal says Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis is “great to work”. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post getty Images)

O’Neal said he did not read most of the critical reports about Lewis before he joined the task. Instead, he relied on Lewis and his colleagues working in other British publications. They talked to him a lot.

“I can say that it meets my high expectations – not on the desire to meet my expectations, but I just think the man is too big, and you know, I’m doing what I do and I’m still doing it,” he said.

Washington Post’s editorial movements from Bezos were seen as applying President Donald Trump by liberal critics, but the article “Democracy died in the dark” article is in a good company. Other former news organizations were accused of knee bending multi -dollar cases such as ABC and CBS. Trump’s antagonistic relationship with the press, the fight with the Associated Press on the “Gulf of America”, his lawyers, New York Times and The Wall Street Journal targeted in the second period of the second period of Jimmy Kimmel’s interpretation of the Kirk assassination of ABC and the second period between the renewed blood feud.

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At a time when media colleagues solve threats to free conversation, O’neal does not seem anxious.

“About our journalism for me. I don’t think of any noise,” O’neal said. “We only provide the most accurate, interesting and attractive journalism for America. And if you sit only if you sit on subscribers or a politician or who will answer. You just have to do what you think it’s right. And I think my journalism.”

O’Neal rejected his concerns about various threats against President Donald Trump and news organizations from the media industry. (Getty Images)

Many of the most profile columnists of the mail have purchased during the summer (Jonathan Capehart, Catherine Rampell, Philip Bump). O’Neal continues to be optimistic about the fact that the employees who choose to stay are really involved in the championship.

O’Neal said, “Here only the resignation for changes and ‘Oh okay, maybe I can live with it’ but we don’t want people who are really excited.” He said.

“This morning I came from a new Editorial Board meeting. It was energetic. We do discussions, we all know each other better. And so everyone I interact is fired. And look, the place will still continue to change, isn’t it? “So, it always develops. But in the corner of the task, in the visibility section, I don’t feel anything except acceleration and big energy. And we’re very clear with everyone about the travel direction and I’m excited about it.”

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O’neal not only applies what is called “different voice” on the application pages, but also should bring the viewing section to the 21st century and accept that it is “where it should be” in the constantly developing media view.

O’Neal, “Personally, I love printed newspapers. Reading a paper, I enjoy the tactile experience to read how to organize. But some people want to get their news through Tiktok… Some people prefer Youtube,” he said. “And I think, frankly, we’re playing captures because we didn’t do enough about it and Finally, we put a large amount of resources, time and energy on any piece of journalism we make. “

While he says that being a Post’s idea of ​​ideas is “the difficulty of my career”, O’neal insists that “having a lot of fun”.

“My goal is to raise the people around me around me and make their careers as fun and interesting as possible, because many people are not very excited with journalists. And I think for most reasons. There is a lot of failure to inform the public in this sector. And so I see it as a chance to get it right.”