Paul Miller (September 28, 1906 – August 21, 1991) was an American newspaper executive and journalist. He headed the Gannett newspaper chain from 1957 to 1973. Miller also served as the top official of the Associated Press from 1963 to 1977.Carolyn G. Hanneman, "Miller, Paul (1906-1991)" at Oklahoma Historical Society Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (retrieved March 9, 2015).Dennis Hevesi, "Paul Miller, 84, Former Chairman Of Gannett and the A.P., Is Dead", The New York Times, August 23, 1991.
Early years Paul Miller was born on September 28, 1906, in Diamond, Missouri, to the Rev. James Miller, an itinerant Protestant minister, and his devoted wife, Clara Miller née Ranne. Over the next thirteen years, the Millers added four daughters and a second son to their "brood", as Clara once affectionately referred to her children. Between the time Miller was born and the year of his high school graduation in 1925, the family moved no fewer than seven times to small towns in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, a circumstance that seems not to have affected him then or later. One reason may be that despite his family’s peripatetic lifestyle, the Miller home, wherever it happened to be, seems always to have been a source of warmth, affection and traditional Christian values.
Miller showed an early predisposition for writing. His first experiment in journalism occurred with the publication of Vol. I, August 1920, No. 1, of The Boy Sportsman. Miller pronounced it "The Official Organ of The Lone Scout Athletic Club," and informed his readers that it would be "Published Monthly by Paul T. Miller, Quapaw, Okla." The success – or not – of The Boy Sportsman is unknown as, for whatever reasons, Miller moved on the next year to publish The Boy Athlete: Every Boys Magazine, with his name on the cover as "Paul Miller, Editor, Quapaw, Oklahoma." Again, its success, or failure, remains a mystery.
Miller’s earliest experiences with newspapering prepared him well for greater journalistic responsibilities. At the age of fifteen, he won a national high school editorial writing contest, and as a senior secured top honors in a similar competition held by the University of Wisconsin. Also in his senior year, he served as the editor of the Pawhuska High School newspaper, The Wah-Sha-She (Osage for "the water people"), which under his direction earned national recognition by winning several interscholastic publication contests.
In addition to his high-school editorship of The Wah-Sha-She, Miller also demonstrated abilities in sports, outside activities, and academics. He was captain of the Pawhuska Huskies football team as well as a Tulsa World selection for all-state tackle in 1924. He was twice captain of the school’s basketball squad as well as all-district center in the 1924 Tulsa basketball tournament. Miller worked periodically as both reporter and city editor for the Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital – his first experience in the larger world of journalism, and one which provided him invaluable knowledge in newspapering. He graduated from high school in the spring of 1925 with strong enough academic credentials to qualify him for admittance to Oklahoma A&M College at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
In Miller's first semester, he ran for and won the election for president of the freshman class. In his sophomore year, he continued to gain experience as a newspaperman at the same time that lack of money threatened to force him to leave school and get a job. He had already served as assistant sports editor for The O’Collegian when he became its acting managing editor on February 1, 1927, and managing editor on March 29, 1927. Despite these promotions, however, he faced stiff competition from former sports editor Otis Wile in the campus-wide election for editor of the paper. Miller lost the election to Wile by 24 votes out of a total of 1744 votes cast, which was 30% percent higher than the total votes cast for any other elected position. His supporters had cautioned that if their candidate lost the election, Miller would be unable to stay in school – a prophecy fulfilled that nevertheless offered him other opportunities in newspapering.
A short column in the May 29, 1927, edition of The Okemah Daily Leader advised its readers that "Paul Miller, present managing editor of The O’Collegian, will become editor of The Okemah Daily Leader at the conclusion of this term."
Miller remained on the staff of the Okemah Publishing Company for fifteen months, although he moved to Norman, Oklahoma, to become a feature writer for the Oklahoma City Times. While losing the election for the relatively high-paying job of managing editor for the O’Collegian had forced him to leave Oklahoma A&M, his new position with the Times made it possible for him to return to school at the University of Oklahoma. His decision to enroll there may also have been influenced by his parents’ move to Norman, where his father served as executive secretary of Oklahoma Christian Churches. In the late summer or early fall of 1928 the Okemah Daily Leader reported the loss of its "popular editor," and noted that he had recently resigned, and was to leave Okemah for Norman where he would "enroll as a special student in the state university" [and] "serve as staff correspondent for the Daily Oklahoman and Times."
Miller attended school at the University of Oklahoma from the fall of 1928 to the spring of 1930, while at the same time pursuing his new duties as a correspondent both for the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times. During this time, he became the president of the University of Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, a professional journalism fraternity.
The June 17, 1930, issue of the O’Collegian featured a column proclaiming Miller's return to Stillwater: "Enlargement of the department of information and service, created at Oklahoma A. and M. college last February by President Henry G. Bennett, has been announced, with Paul Miller added to the staff, effective June 15." The paper went on to say that Miller "had wide training and experience in newspaper activities," specifically, the Oklahoma City Times, Daily Oklahoman, Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital, Guthrie Daily Leader, and Okemah Daily Leader and Weekly Ledger. Two years later, as head of the department, Miller's duties, according to the Oklahoma A&M college yearbook, The Redskin, were to see "to it that the name of the college is constantly kept before the attention of the people of the state. His chief function is the supplying of news matter regarding the school for the state papers." In addition to his staff duties with the department, Miller also wrote for The A. and M. College Magazine, and served on the staff of The Redskin.
Associated Press
Miller remained in Stillwater and attended Oklahoma A&M until February 1932, then accepted an offer to work for the Associated Press at Columbus, Ohio. Earlier, while working for the Oklahoma City Times and the Daily Oklahoman in Norman, he had so impressed the A.P.'s bureau chief in Oklahoma City, Leon Durst, that he had written to his superiors: "Here is a man the AP should have."
From March 1, 1932, until the fall of 1933, Miller worked as a rewrite man and night filing editor for the Associated Press at its Columbus bureau. It was here that he acquired and first applied the knowledge that allowed him to excel as an "A.P. man." This was also where he met and married Louise Johnson.
Miller received his diploma from Oklahoma A&M College in 1933.
After less than a year of marriage, the Millers began to prepare for the first of many moves they would make throughout their years with the Associated Press. Officials at the A.P.'s New York City bureau had taken notice of Miller's work and requested his transfer to work at the cable desk there. He accepted the promotion, and served as that bureau's cable and general news editor from the fall of 1933 until February 1935.
Other promotions occurred in rapid succession. In early 1935, Miller became night desk editor at the A.P.'s Kansas City bureau, a position he held until March 1936. On April 1, 1936, he became the A.P.'s bureau chief at Salt Lake City, Utah. Almost immediately, A.P. operations at Salt Lake City began to improve. He took charge of Associated Press news service and personnel for the entire state of Pennsylvania as chief of bureau with offices at Harrisburg in July 1937. That December, Miller's bureau moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remained until April 1941 when the A.P.'s general manager, Kent Cooper, reassigned him to New York, initially as Cooper's executive assistant, and later as vice president and director of operations of Wide World Inc.
In June 1942, Cooper elevated Miller to the top A.P. posting in the nation's capital, Chief of Bureau, Washington, D.C. Miller would become one of the most successful journalists of the twentieth century, eventually ascending to the presidencies of both the Associated Press and the Gannett Co., Inc.
Nevertheless, the ultimate highlight of a long and storied career was always his wartime service in the capital of a nation then engulfed in global war. As he later recalled during an interview following his retirement in 1979: "But someone is always saying what do you think you enjoyed most. I really have enjoyed everything. But if you have to say what was the most exciting assignment or years, you certainly have to say Washington..."
On 29 June 1942, one day after the Germans opened their second summer offensive of World War II in the Soviet Union, Miller wrote to Kent Cooper in New York: "I went to work here today. Sincerely yours." The hard-driving bureau chief immediately set about familiarizing himself with his new surroundings. As he later remembered: "I'd never been in Washington previously, except for brief visits. I didn't know where anything was. I didn't know anybody. Impressions swirled around in my brain, grew brighter or dimmer, gave way to new and better ones..." His most vivid impressions were those he formed of the most influential people in wartime Washington, and which he documented "to bridge the gap between a day in June of 1942 and this wintry day in February of 1943 when I finally am getting around to keeping a diary".
While Miller never did keep a diary, he did assemble files of confidential memoranda dutifully prepared from off-the-record meetings with many of the nation's top military and political leaders. Foremost among them were both wartime presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman; Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall; and Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet (COMINCH)/Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King. Other notable figures who provided Miller with confidential information included British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie; Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox; Commander of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater General Joseph Stilwell; Chairman of the War Production Board Donald Nelson; former secretary of war and one of Roosevelt's personal overseas representatives, Major General Pat Hurley; U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman; Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy; Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area General Douglas MacArthur; Commander of the Far East Air Forces Lieutenant General George Kenney, and Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr.