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Defense Department leadership is exploring the possibility of terminating Max Lederer, publisher of the military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper, according to sources who spoke with Fox News Digital. Lederer announced his intention to retire at the end of September after 19 years leading the publication, but Pentagon officials may move to dismiss him before that date takes effect.
A U.S. official cited Lederer’s “poor job performance” as the primary reason for the potential removal, though insubordination was identified as the decisive factor pushing leadership toward termination. The Stars and Stripes publisher, an Army veteran who joined the outlet in 1992, told staff his departure stems from “fundamental” disagreements with Pentagon leadership regarding the paper’s direction.
Pentagon sources claim the newspaper has deteriorated significantly, pointing to a 30 percent decline in website visits between 2019 and 2024, dropping from 20 million to 14 million annual unique visitors. Print deliveries also fell during this period, descending from 7 million copies yearly to 6.2 million, according to figures the Pentagon provided to Fox News Digital.
A source with knowledge of Stars and Stripes operations contested these claims, citing 23 million unique visitors and 42 million page views between August 2025 and July 2026. That source attributed 2024’s downturn to technical outages and system failures rather than editorial decline, and noted that print circulation figures exclude copies distributed to service members stationed overseas.
Critics have charged Lederer with failing to modernize the publication and relying too heavily on newswire services, which consumed $411,000 of the paper’s $27 million to $29 million annual budget in 2026. The Pentagon has announced plans to overhaul the newspaper, with spokesman Sean Parnell declaring in January that the outlet would be refocused on military readiness and warfighting rather than what he characterized as “woke distractions.”
Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin praised Lederer’s decades-long commitment to providing service members and their families with independent, credible reporting removed from the military chain of command. Pentagon officials previously terminated the publication’s ombudsman in April following his criticism of Trump administration oversight of the newspaper.
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