Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer Retires as Pentagon Weighs Firing Him First

Max D. Lederer Jr., the longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes, is retiring effective September 30. He told staff in a memo Tuesday that his "philosophy of leadership" and understanding of the outlet's mission "differ in fundamental ways" from where Defense Department leadership wants to take it, according to the Associated Press, which reviewed the memo.

CBS News reports that Pentagon officials had discussed firing Lederer before his planned retirement date, citing unnamed U.S. officials. It's unclear whether that plan is still active or when, if ever, a decision on new leadership will be made. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CBS News or the AP.

Lederer led the outlet for 19 years, making him only the second full-time civilian publisher in its history. He declined an interview with CBS News before his departure, saying only in an email that he wasn't comfortable participating.

A pattern, not an isolated move

This isn't the first shakeup at Stars and Stripes this year. Four months ago, the Pentagon removed Jacqueline Smith, the outlet's ombudsman, whose job was specifically to protect editorial independence, a role Congress created for the position. Smith didn't hold back in a column afterward: "No one should be surprised that they're kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes' editorial independence."

Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin has also spoken publicly, including to CBS News, about friction with Pentagon leadership.

What the Pentagon says it wants

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell laid out the administration's case back in January, posting on X that the department was "returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters." He said the paper would "refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale" and "adapt it to serve a new generation of service members."

Parnell's vision: "warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY." No more, in his words, "repurposed DC gossip columns" or "Associated Press reprints."

Stars and Stripes gets roughly 65% of its funding from the Defense Department, according to CBS News, and readership has been sliding for years. Print delivery dropped from about 7 million annual copies in 2019 to 6.2 million in 2024. Unique visitors to stripes.com fell nearly 30%, from 20 million to 14 million a year. The outlet was projected to spend about $400,000 this year on subscription content services, and Pentagon staff told CBS News they've seen stacks of unread print copies sitting around the building. If a taxpayer-funded publication is losing its audience and mostly repackaging wire copy, that's a legitimate management problem worth fixing.

Where the fight actually is

But the friction isn't really about fitness content or aggregation. Stars and Stripes has led recent reporting on conditions and mental health concerns among sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its extended deployment, coverage President Trump has downplayed, according to the Independent and the AP. That's precisely the kind of reporting an independent outlet is supposed to do even when it embarrasses the chain of command, and it's precisely the kind of reporting a Pentagon-controlled outlet wouldn't publish.

Stars and Stripes was set up with congressionally protected editorial independence for a reason: service members need a source that will report bad news about their own leadership, not just morale-boosting content approved by public affairs. Removing the ombudsman whose job was to guard that independence, then pushing out the publisher who defended it, looks less like a management overhaul and more like a takeover of the newsroom.

The bigger picture at the Pentagon

This fits a broader pattern under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Last year, the Pentagon tried to impose new restrictions on journalists working the building, prompting most outlets to turn in their credentials and walk out rather than accept the terms. This summer, the Pentagon declared its press office a classified space, requiring journalists to have an escort on Pentagon grounds at all times. That policy is being challenged in court; a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in mid-July that it could stand, reversing a lower court decision.

None of the source reporting indicates any charges, investigations, or legal findings against Lederer, Smith, or Slavin. This is a personnel and editorial-control dispute, not a legal one.

The open question is who runs Stars and Stripes after September 30, and whether that person answers to the newsroom's congressionally mandated independence or to Sean Parnell's press shop. The Pentagon hasn't said. Until it does, roughly 1.4 million daily readers, mostly troops overseas relying on a print edition when the internet isn't reliable, are watching to see whether the paper stays a newsroom or becomes a bulletin board.