Adam O’Neal, top editor of The Washington Post’s opinion section, resigns

Adam O’Neal, top editor of The Washington Post’s opinion section, resigned a little over a year after Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner, hired him to reorient the section toward a more libertarian bent, reports The New York Times.

“While this was not an easy decision, I am leaving proud of how far the opinion section has come and optimistic that its best days lie ahead,” O’Neal wrote in a note to colleagues. He did not say in the note why he was leaving.

Jeff D’Onofrio, publisher and chief executive of The Post, wrote in a separate note that O’Neal had made the call to step down. “I want to thank him for his leadership and hard work in reimagining the section (and) under the leadership of Adam O’Neal, Post Opinions has become more balanced in perspective, more financially sustainable and more accessible to readers than ever before.”

According to The Washington Post, “O’Neal, 34, came to The Post with experience in opinion writing, working as a correspondent at the Economist magazine and an editorial page writer at the Wall Street Journal, but limited management background. The Post’s newsroom, run by Executive Editor Matt Murray, operates independently of the Opinion section.”