William Bradford Merrill was a descended from Nathaniel Merrill who settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635. He was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, the son of the Rev. Horatio Merrill, a Congregationalist minister, and Sarah Bradford (Whitman) Merrill.
Merrill studied at the Boston Latin School, 1874-76, preparing for Harvard, but instead of entering that institution he went to Paris, where he finished his education, devoting especial attention to art.
While in Paris, Merrill wrote news letters for Philadelphia papers and on his return to the United States he took up newspaper work in Philadelphia, becoming a reporter for the North American. Within a year he was made its telegraph editor, despite his youth, and in another year became its dramatic critic. He gave up newspaper work for a time to make a study of American railroads, which took him into every part of the country and gave him an insight into railroad finance which was useful to him later, although the resulting publication, Guide to Railways of the United States (1881), was of temporary value only. Merrill's versatility developed rapidly. His grasp included the problems of a publisher as well as those of an editor and in 1895 he became financial manager of the Press. In 1901 he transferred his services to the New York World and was made managing editor of the paper, then under the active control of Joseph Pulitzer. Later he became financial manager of the World, in which capacity he attracted the attention of William Randolph Hearst, who engaged him in 1908 as manager of the New York American. In 1917 he became general manager of all the Hearst papers, which was said to have been the fulfillment of an early ambition he had formed to be the director of a number of newspapers, at a time when newspaper "chains" did not exist. As a member of the New York Publishers' Association, in which body he represented the New York American and the New York Evening Journal, he was active in negotiations with labor unions whose members were employed by newspapers, attaining a reputation for fairness to both sides. Merrill continued active in the management of the Hearst papers until failing health caused him to give up work a year before his death.
As a journalist, he became at the age of twenty-three managing editor of the Philadelphia Press. In a few years, he developed to a marked degree the scope of the Press as a powerful and enterprising newspaper, gathering around him a staff of unusual efficiency, one of whose members was Richard Harding Davis. His success in Philadelphia attracted attention and at the age of thirty years, he was called to be managing editor of the New York Press, being the youngest managing editor in the city which was the center of American journalism. At the conclusion of a strike of pressmen, the publishers presented to him a memorial expressive of their appreciation, and the Pressmen's Union made him an honorary member.
a member of the New York Publishers' Association
In appearance, Merrill was slender and of medium height, with an expression of keenness and alertness. From his early twenties, his hair was almost snow white. His favorite maxim was that "vigilance, enterprise, and accuracy are the keynote of the successful newspaper, " and he impressed that view upon editors and reporters. His zeal was centered intensely upon newspaper work, and only rarely could he be persuaded to take a vacation. A remark which he often made was that "all the rewards of life come in the day's work. " In his early days as a dramatic critic Merrill formed a lasting friendship with Charles and Daniel Frohman. He was one of the first to detect the latent abilities of Theodore Roosevelt and brought him to the attention of Mayor William L. Strong of New York City, who appointed him head of the police board, a stepping stone to his subsequent career.
Merrill married, in 1882, Sara Louise Taylor, of Georgetown, D. C. , who died in 1913. In 1922, he married Mrs. Josephine H. Bissell.
