"Here is a man that the Associated Press should have," wrote the A.P.'s Oklahoma City bureau chief in 1931, as he recommended the hiring of a young reporter from the Okemah, Okla., Daily Leader. The A.P. accepted the advice, took 25-year-old Paul Miller aboard as a rewrite man. It proved a wise choice. Last week, at 56, Paul Miller became the A.P.'s new president—and the first one in the wire service's history to come up through the ranks.
Miller's career in journalism embraces a separate success. In 1947, then the A.P.'s Washington bureau chief and assistant general manager, he left to join...