Miller, Paul 1906-1991

views updated

MILLER, Paul 1906-1991

PERSONAL: Born September 28, 1906, in Diamond, MO; died of cardiac arrest August 21, 1991, in West Palm Beach, FL; son of James (a minister) and Clara (Ranne) Miller; married Louise Johnson, 1933; children: Jean, Ranne, Paul, Jr., Kenper. Education: Attended Oklahoma A & M (now Oklahoma State University), B.A. (journalism), 1933.

CAREER: Pawhuska Daily Journal, Pawhuska, OK, reporter, then city editor, c. 1921-24; Okemah Daily Leader, Okemah, OK, editor, beginning 1926; writer for papers in Stillwater, Guthrie, and Norman, OK, c. 1926-30; Associated Press, night rewrite man in Columbus, OH, beginning 1932, worked in bureaus in New York, NY, Kansas City, MO, bureau chief in Salt Lake City, UT, 1936, in charge of operations in Pennsylvania, 1937-41, assistant general manager in New York, NY, 1941-43, Washington bureau chief, 1943-47, president/chairman, 1963-77. Gannett Corporation, Rochester, NY, executive assistant, 1947-49, publisher of Rochester Times-Union, 1949-51; Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, publisher, 1951, executive vice president, 1951-55, operating head, 1955-57, president, 1957-78. Member, Pulitzer Prize advisory board and American Press Institute of Columbia University advisory board (chair).

MEMBER: Boys Club of America (former national director), Society of Professional Journalists (honorary president), New York State Publishers Association (former president).

AWARDS, HONORS: Named one of five most influential U.S. newspaper executives, U.S. News & World Report, 1975, 1976, 1977; Syracuse University School of Journalism Distinguished Service Medal; University of Missouri medal for distinguished service to journalism.

WRITINGS:

China Opens the Door, Gannett (Rochester, NY), 1972.

SIDELIGHTS: Paul Miller is credited with building the Gannett Corporation into the largest newspaper chain in the United States. "That geographic breadth provided the company with a broad economic base that insulated its profits from regional downturns," Cecilia Friend wrote in Dictionary of Literary Biography, "It also gave it a national dimension lacking in the nineteen-paper, mostly upstate New York chain that Miller inherited from founder Frank E. Gannett in 1957." Before Gannett, Miller was chairman of the Associated Press.

Miller began his career with several small papers in his home state of Oklahoma. "Miller was a newsman first and foremost," Friend said, "even during the time he was the top executive at Gannett and the AP. He started as a reporter and never completely gave up that role, whether filing dispatches from around the world—including Berlin during the 1949 airlift and the Soviet Union, where he interviewed Nikita Khrushchev in 1962—or writing local columns for the Rochester, New York, paper that he edited."

In 1932 Miller left small-town journalism for the Associated Press (A.P.), the agency that supplies U.S. newspapers with access to world news and vice versa. He stayed with the A.P. for fifteen years, serving as editor and writer in a variety of positions across the United States, including Columbus, Ohio; New York City; Kansas City, Missouri; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Washington, D.C. In Washington, according to Friend, Miller demanded tighter leads to stories and more interpretive reporting. He also supported staff in disagreements with the home office and increased salaries. Miller became A.P. president in 1963, the only A.P. employee to do so. The news service changed the title of this part-time position to chairman in 1972. "Paul Miller was not just A.P.'s chairman. He was its champion, always challenging us to do better but never failing to hail a job well done," said Louis D. Boccardi, A.P. president and general manager, as quoted in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. "He had many interests and many successes but we always knew he loved the Associated Press."

In 1947, Miller left the A.P. to become executive assistant to Frank Gannett, president of the Gannett Company, and as such, Gannett's hand-picked successor o the family chain of New York state newspapers. The seventy-year-old Gannett left no doubt that he had hired Miller as his right-hand man, and when Gannett died Miller took charge. He continued Gannett's policy of purchasing papers in small towns with little competition, but expanded the policy far beyond New York state. When Miller retired in 1978, the corporation controlled seventy-eight papers in thirty states, including Hawaii, the Virgin Islands and Guam, and could boast forty-four straight profitable quarters after going public in 1967.

"While some hailed the scope of Miller's vision, others scored it," Friend wrote. "He regularly felt the need to defend Gannett's acquisitions and strategy against criticism, including the charge that large chains that operate monopolies in one-newspaper cities stifle diversity, the foundation of press freedom."

Oklahoma State University named its journalism and broadcasting building in honor of Miller, and offers a Paul Miller Scholarship Fund. Since 1986 the Gannett Foundation has offered Paul Miller Washington reporting fellowships for journalists.