Charles M. Palmer (October 3, 1856 – December 10, 1949) was a Midwest newspaper broker who assembled much of the William Randolph Hearst media empire and an organizer of the Associated Press.

He would be business manager of the company from 1895 to 1899 and would be president of the Boston Record for Hearst for several years.

[1] In 1900, after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Associated Press was a de facto public utility and thus had to accept any newspaper that applied without restriction.

He was among the publishers who dissolved the AP and established it as a non-profit membership organization.

The News-Press & Gazette Company would be his main newspaper until the end of his life.