The measure of a leader: E&P’s News Executive of the Year exemplifies leadership, courage and service

For those of us who have never served in uniform, it may be difficult to wrap our arms around what it feels like to be a service member stationed overseas or deployed to dangerous combat zones far away. Stars and Stripes serves as that beacon from home ...”

Gretchen A. Peck, editor-in-chief, E&P Magazine

You may have noticed our November issue is a little different this year. We rebranded Editor & Publisher’s annual “Publisher of the Year” award in favor of the new title, “News Executive of the Year.” The new title better reflects E&P’s modern mission and its broad, innovative audience, untethered to any single news media platform.

This year, we received dozens of nominations, all for worthy candidates to consider. But one nominee stood out: Max D. Lederer Jr., the former publisher of Stars and Stripes.

If you’ve been following E&P’s recent reporting on Stars and Stripes, you know that it’s been a particularly challenging year for the news operation and for Lederer personally, who was fired by the Pentagon in September for alleged “insubordination.” Lederer’s courage, poise and leadership during the past year are just part of the reason why he graces our November cover. Having had the pleasure of getting to know him a little better, through conversations with him and many of his colleagues at Stars and Stripes, I got the sense that his long career of service — to the nation and to the Stars and Stripes audience — has been building to this moment.

Lederer and I began our careers in news media around the same time, and during one conversation, we marveled at all of the challenges we’ve faced since the advent of the internet: the transition to digital media and digital workflow; the erosion of traditional advertising and pay models; the introduction of new platforms, and now, artificial intelligence. It has been more than 30 years of constant, relentless change. We shared a laugh recalling what it was like to try to send fat bitmap files across dial-up modems to remote printing facilities; it could sometimes take hours to transmit just a few pages of content, and at the time, it didn’t feel much like “progress.”

But Lederer’s job at Stars and Stripes was so much more complex than what any of the rest of us contended with. He had the weighty challenge of not just keeping Stars and Stripes funded and sustainable but of distributing the brand all around the world. The logistics alone are staggering. As publisher, Lederer also had to establish the organizational culture and lead by example. By all accounts, he did it with unflappable dignity, resolve and humility.

Stars and Stripes, after all, isn’t your average news media outlet. It is enduringly special for the audience who relies on it — not just for practical information, but for a sense of community and shared experience. The newsroom produces essential reporting that’s by design and by law independent of the Department of Defense’s public relations arm. It speaks for and about service members, their families, veterans and military-adjacent readers, like defense contractors.

For those of us who have never served in uniform, it may be difficult to wrap our arms around what it feels like to be a service member stationed overseas or deployed to dangerous combat zones far away. Stars and Stripes serves as that beacon from home, a trusted source and a familiar certainty in what must often feel like surreal or indeterminate circumstances.

In honor of his many professional accomplishments, his unwavering leadership and his commitment to service, Max D. Lederer Jr. is Editor & Publisher’s 2026 News Executive of the Year.

Gretchen A. Peck is Editor & Publisher’s editor-in-chief. Peck has reported for E&P since 2010. She welcomes emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.