Max D. Lederer, Jr. is Editor & Publisher’s 2026 News Executive of the Year.
Lederer is the longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes, where he spent more than three decades in leadership roles, including general counsel, general manager and chief operating officer. He became acting publisher in 2007 and was formally named publisher in 2009.
Prior to joining Stars and Stripes in 1992, Lederer served honorably and with distinction in the United States Army, during which he deployed to the Middle East for both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm; served as a U.S. Army judge advocate; and was a recipient of the Bronze Star.
Courage is a theme that runs throughout and beyond Lederer’s military service.
In August 2026, Lederer announced his retirement, citing differing opinions with Pentagon leadership about Stars and Stripes’ future. The Pentagon subsequently fired Lederer, alleging insubordination for his refusal to dismiss Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin and Reporter Lara Korte after their public comments affirming Stars and Stripes editorial independence and mission. Lederer, Slavin and Korte have sued the Pentagon, arguing that their dismissals were unlawful and retaliatory.
E&P Publisher Mike Blinder made the announcement during America’s Newspapers’ Senior Leadership Conference awards luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 29. “Everybody in this room knows there can be a price for publishing something powerful people would rather you leave alone. The pressure can come from an advertiser, a public official, an owner, a person who can make your next week very difficult. We ask our journalists to be courageous. Our honoree reminds us that courage has to reach the publisher’s office, too.”
E&P received numerous News Executive of the Year nominations for Lederer this year, recognizing his long and exemplary career, including from Valerie Sherman, executive assistant and trademark specialist at Stars and Stripes. In her nomination, Sherman wrote, “Leading Stars and Stripes is unlike leading a conventional news organization. Its journalists serve a highly specialized audience of service members, military families, veterans and readers around the world, while the organization operates within the complex environment of the federal government. That combination creates challenges that few news executives encounter: preserving journalistic credibility and independence while navigating institutional, financial, operational and technological realities. Max has embraced those challenges rather than allowing them to define the organization.
“What distinguishes Max’s leadership is his ability to simultaneously protect what makes Stars and Stripes special while pushing the organization toward its future. He understands that the publication’s extraordinary history is an asset — but that history alone cannot sustain a modern news organization. Under his leadership, Stars and Stripes continues to evolve its operations, audience strategy and organizational approach, while remaining firmly grounded in its core mission: providing independent, credible journalism to the military community it has served for generations.”
In another nomination, former Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin said, “Max Lederer defended the right to free and independent news for service members tirelessly, withstanding tremendous pressure from the Pentagon this year and ultimately losing his job while defending it. On the business side, he balanced the daunting needs of a global 24/7 news delivery while navigating government regulations like no one could.”
“Max Lederer’s remarkable career has been defined by service — first to his country in uniform, and, for more than 30 years, to Stars and Stripes and the military community it serves. He brought to the news media organization not only courage and an unwavering commitment to its journalistic mission, but also the vision and business acumen required to sustain and strengthen it. Through it all, Lederer never lost sight of the people at the heart of that mission: service members and their families around the world who rely on Stars and Stripes for truly independent, credible journalism,” said E&P’s Editor-in-Chief Gretchen A. Peck.
A comprehensive News Executive of the Year profile about Max D. Lederer, Jr. will be E&P’s November 2026 cover story. Please join E&P’s leadership team in congratulating Max Lederer and expressing our gratitude for his extraordinary service to journalism, to the military community and to the nation.
About Editor & Publisher:
Since 1884, Editor & Publisher (E&P) remains the authoritative, independent voice of news media, serving an audience that represents print, broadcast, digital and all multimedia forms of news publishing. Annually, E&P honors a well-deserving news media “Publisher of the Year.” In 2026, the award was rebranded “News Executive of the Year” to reflect E&P’s broader coverage and audience across news media platforms and business models.
