Former Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley will return to the New York Times as editor at large, the paper announced on Thursday. This comes nearly a year after Shipley left the Post after owner Jeff Bezos sought to reorient its editorial pages toward more conservative principles.
Shipley’s new role at the Times will see him “producing and editing high-impact, ambitious editorial packages,” NYT editors Monica Drake and Sam Dolnick told staffers in a memo, including a package commemorating the paper’s 175th anniversary. Shipley started at the Times in 1990 as an assigning op-ed editor, returned later that decade to work on its magazine and shuffled through various roles before leaving in 2010, including as Op-Ed editor.
“This type of project leverages David’s deep experience in long-form storytelling and institutional history, and will benefit from his sharp eye and creative vision,” the pair wrote. “We’re happy he’s bringing his skills back to the Times, and he’s eager to collaborate across the newsroom.”
Shipley served as WaPo’s Opinions editor from July 2022 through February of last year, opting to exit after Bezos sought to refocus the opinion pages around the principles of “personal liberties and free markets.” Shipley told his co-workers he decided to leave “after reflection on how I can best move forward in the profession I love.”
“I will always be thankful for the opportunity I was given to work alongside a team of opinion journalists whose commitment to strong, innovative, reported commentary inspired me every day,” he wrote at the time.
His exit came months after Shipley disagreed with Bezos’ decision to spike a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris weeks before the 2024 election and end the Post’s decades-long tradition of endorsing presidential candidates. The opinions section has since seen an exodus of longtime columnists over the last year after Bezos’ shift.
The Post announced last summer it would name Adam O’Neal, the Economist’s Washington correspondent, as its new opinion editor.
