David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, is resigning after trying to persuade Jeff Bezos to reconsider the new direction.

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David Shipley, The Washington Post’s opinion editor, is stepping down amid a narrowing of the section’s focus to defend “personal liberties and free markets.”Credit…Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post, via Getty Images

Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets” and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics.

Mr. Bezos said the section’s editor, David Shipley, was leaving the paper in response to the change.

“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” Mr. Bezos said. “Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.”

In his note, Mr. Bezos said that he had asked Mr. Shipley whether he wanted to stay at The Post, and that Mr. Shipley had declined.

“I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no,’” Mr. Bezos wrote.

In a note to the opinion staff, Mr. Shipley said he had decided to step down “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,” Mr. Shipley wrote.

Mr. Bezos’ decision to curtail the scope of views on The Post’s opinion pages is a major departure from the newspaper’s decades-long approach to commentary and criticism. Under Mr. Shipley and his predecessor, Fred Hiatt, The Post has published a wide variety of views from the left and the right, including liberal stalwarts like David Ignatius and Ruth Marcus and conservative voices like George Will and Charles Krauthammer.

The new direction envisioned for The Post’s opinion section appears to be a rightward shift for the paper. Mr. Bezos’ new focus echoes what has long been the informal tagline of The Wall Street Journal’s conservative opinion pages: “Free markets, free people.”

Will Lewis, The Post’s chief executive, said in a memo to staff that changes to the opinion section were “not about siding with any political party.”

“This is about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper,” Mr. Lewis wrote. “Doing this is a critical part of serving as a premier news publication across America and for all Americans.”