The Washington Post building. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Last week, office hours with Adam O’Neal, the new head of The Washington Post’s opinion section, were circulated through the department. Instead of the new boss requesting to meet with members of the team he now leads, the onus was placed on staffers to request time with him. Those who wanted a one-on-one had to sign up themselves—a curious dynamic, given O'Neal had officially started after introducing himself with an awkward, selfie-style video posted to X in June. In any case, some staffers signed up for a meeting. Others chose not to.
Over the course of the week, O'Neal held court from his modest eighth-floor corner office on K Street, which overlooks McPherson Square and, notably, is not the same office once occupied by his predecessor, David Shipley. The staffers who met with him hoped to gain some clarity about his plans, which have so far remained vague. All that’s been publicly telegraphed is that owner Jeff Bezos wants the section to champion personal liberties and economic freedom—a broad mandate that can be interpreted in any number of ways.
Unfortunately, for those who made the trek to his office, little new light was shed on what, exactly, O'Neal envisions for one of the most prestigious and influential opinion sections in American media. “I don’t understand what the path is,” one staffer told me. “We only keep being told what it isn’t.” Indeed, while O'Neal kept his strategic thinking under wraps, he was more forthright on at least one front: According to people familiar with the meetings, he conveyed to some columnists that…
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