For more than 160 years, Stars and Stripes has served as an independent source of news for America’s service members around the world — operating uniquely inside the Department of Defense while fiercely guarding its editorial independence. In a wide-ranging conversation with E&P, Publisher and CEO Max Dee Lederer Jr. reflected on the paper’s mission, the pressures of publishing within a government framework, the challenges of operating globally and the future of military journalism in the age of AI.
Lederer, a former U.S. Army Judge Advocate General officer who served during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm and earned the Bronze Star Medal, brings a lifetime of experience at the crossroads of military service, law and journalism. As publisher, he sees Stars and Stripes not only as a news organization but as a public trust — one obligated to remain fiercely impartial for the very people it serves.
The publication within the Department of Defense
Stars and Stripes has long been described as “a uniquely American newspaper,” a phrase that resonates deeply with Lederer. “We are dedicated to telling the story of the U.S. military community to the U.S. military community as well as to the external audience, the United States audience writ large,” he said. That mission is complicated — and strengthened — by the fact that “my staff are paid by the Department of Defense” and that the publication operates as both a government-supported and commercially supported entity.
This hybrid model gives Stars and Stripes both constraints and freedoms. The paper is partially funded by taxpayer dollars when commercial distribution isn’t feasible — for example, “when we were in Afghanistan,” where troops could not be expected to purchase newspapers during deployments. Elsewhere, commercial advertising and sales help sustain the operation.
Still, Lederer insists that the funding structure does not dilute the journalism. The congressional mandate requires that Stars and Stripes remain “a balanced, objective, independent and impartial organization,” and the newsroom is structured to reinforce that independence. “We don’t have an editorial opinion of our own,” he said. “We don’t take advertising about ideas. We only take advertising about products and services.” And crucially, “We don’t endorse candidates or take ads that endorse candidates,” which he believes distinguishes the operation from most commercial U.S. news organizations.
Operating abroad also gives Stars and Stripes a unique advantage. As a U.S. government entity, its overseas journalists are protected by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which means they are not subject to local press restrictions. “We’re not subject to the host nation sensitivities, the host nation’s rules regarding gagging of information or controls on free press,” he explained, a freedom that other American media organizations often do not enjoy.
Publishing core values to reinforce trust
In 2025, Lederer made headlines when Stars and Stripes publicly released its core newsroom values in partnership with the Center for Integrity in News Reporting (CFINR). The move was prompted by a sharp decline in public trust in the media. “If you go back, I think roughly to 1972, U.S. media was in the high 70% in trust and credibility,” he said. “Today, it’s down as low as 28%.”
Lederer saw the moment as urgent. “We need to make sure our audience knows what we stand for,” he explained. He began seeking organizations working on similar trust-building initiatives, which eventually led him to CFINR. Their guidance helped shape the values, but the statement itself emerged from intensive collaboration across every division of Stars and Stripes. “I collectively used my entire editorial department, all of my senior leaders in the business department to infuse what we thought the right statement should be,” he said.
The result was a clear declaration published in August 2025 that emphasized fairness, objectivity, impartiality, and truth-telling. “We believe that to be a credible news organization, you need to be fair, objective, impartial… in your truth telling in all that you do,” Lederer said. “And I believe long term, people will continue to see the credibility and value of the organization.”
Managing a global newsroom built for speed and proximity
Stars and Stripes operates in 36 countries, with reporters, editors and production staff stationed across Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. While its headquarters and final editing operation are in Washington, D.C., the global footprint allows the paper to publish around the clock.
“We gather the news where the military is around the world,” Lederer said, noting that the website is truly 24/7. “We have eight hours of the website managed in D.C., eight hours… in Japan and eight hours… in Germany” so that published content aligns with the peak reading hours of each region.
The print operation has also evolved. Gone are the days when a single German press fed the world. Today, Stars and Stripes prints “as close to the community as we can,” including in Poland, Romania, Korea and even previously in places like Kabul and northern Iraq. The goal is simple: “It allows me to quickly spin up access as the military deploys to an area or reduce that access as they leave.”
Navigating the Pentagon’s new press-access rules
One of the most sensitive issues in the interview was the Pentagon’s new requirement that journalists sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorized information — a policy many news organizations have rejected as unconstitutional. For Stars and Stripes, the situation was unusual because the policy was only presented to non-government media.
“Stars and Stripes… is a government entity,” Lederer noted, “so we were never presented that guideline to sign or not sign.” Still, his team studied it carefully. “We’re not comfortable with all of its provisions,” he said.
To maintain transparency, Stars and Stripes made an unusual compromise. Lederer relocated his Pentagon-based reporters back to the D.C. office. They can still attend press briefings or interviews, but they will not operate as embedded bureau staff under a policy they did not sign. “We haven’t been presented the guidelines, we haven’t signed them and agreed to them,” he said, “so therefore it’s not right for us to be going there without that kind of relationship.”
Preparing Stars and Stripes for a digital and AI-dominated future
The future of Stars and Stripes is overwhelmingly digital. “Our audience today on any given day is 1.4 million people, with 60 to 65% coming to us in a digital platform,” Lederer said. The organization publishes more than 300 additional specialty print products, all with digital components, and maintains localized websites in Korea, Japan, Okinawa and Germany.
Video and short-form storytelling are becoming increasingly essential. “We’re not looking for a 20-minute video,” Lederer noted. “We’re looking for 90 seconds, 60 seconds,” requiring new skills and workflows that still begin with strong writing.
But the most significant disruption, in his view, is AI — especially the loss of referral traffic from search engines. “Today, you go to those websites and AI gives you an answer, and there are no sources,” he said. The challenge is to ensure that high-quality journalism remains accessible in an AI-dominated news ecosystem. “How do we infuse… good quality information based on good quality journalism so that those answers are correct,” he asked, “and to get AI in some way to lead people… back to the original source information?”
Like all publishers, Stars and Stripes must adapt quickly. But Lederer remains confident that rigorous journalism — and clear values — will anchor the brand through the technological turbulence ahead.
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