The Washington Post has named The Economist’s Washington correspondent Adam O’Neal, 33, as its next opinion editor, tasking him with executing billionaire Jeff Bezos’ vision of a section focused on “personal liberties and free markets.”

CEO Will Lewis heralded O’Neal’s selection in a Wednesday memo as part of a quest to “champion the timeless American values that have driven entrepreneurialism, innovation, and freedom across the country since its inception.”

The Washington Post named Adam O'Neal, the Washington correspondent at The Economist, as its next opinion editor. LinkedIn

In a video posted to a Post-run X account, O’Neal said his goal is to use technology to help “create the most dynamic and interesting opinion section in America” focused on Bezos’ mandated pillars.

“Our philosophy will be rooted in fundamental optimism about the future of this country,” he said. “What we won’t be are people who lecture you about ideology or demand you think certain ways about policy. You don’t want to take life advice from me, but I’d love, along with my colleagues, to be your guide through the news to better understand what’s happening around the world and in this country.”

The Post provided no additional comment.

The move marks an end to a four-month search for an editor after Opinions editor David Shipley resigned over Bezos’ February edict, refusing to implement the billionaire owner’s conservative-tinged vision.

“A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else,” Bezos wrote to staff at the time. “Freedom is ethical—it minimizes coercion — and practical—it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity."

The pivot, which followed Bezos’ repeated entreaties to President Donald Trump, enraged Post staffers and led to an exodus of award-winning writers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson.

Jeff Bezos announced in February his plans to focus the Post's opinion section on "personal liberties and free markets," traditionally conservative values. Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

The paper ultimately offered the entire Opinion section a buyout last month, allowing its staffers to “make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion.”

The buyout deadline is July 31, and it is unclear whether O’Neal will have time to ingratiate himself with staffers before they choose to stay or go. O’Neal’s start date will be announced “in due course,” Lewis wrote in his memo.

Lewis also reaffirmed the new mission, which he said is permanent. “Our new direction is not a short term shift nor is it aligned to any political party,” he wrote. “Rather it is an opportunity for our Opinion section to share the best of American values.”

Prior to his joining The Economist in 2023, O’Neal served as the executive editor of The Dispatch, a right-leaning digital outlet that has unabashedly opposed Trump. He was also an editorial features editor and then London-based writer for The Wall Street Journal‘s opinion pages, which are similarly anchored in personal liberties in free markets, though he focused mostly on foreign affairs. He left the paper in 2022, according to his LinkedIn.

“I believe in freedom too, not for the sake of it, but because of the human flourishing it enables,” he wrote.