Lawrence Edmund Spivak (June 11, 1900 – March 9, 1994) was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program Meet the Press.

He and journalist Martha Rountree founded the program as promotion for Spivak's magazine, The American Mercury, and it became the longest-running continuous network series in television history.

Spivak published inexpensive digest-sized paperback editions, often abridged, of works by authors including Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Dashiell Hammett, Ellery Queen, Georges Simenon, Rex Stout and Cornell Woolrich.

[7] In 1945, Spivak and journalist Martha Rountree created and co-produced the weekly public affairs program Meet the Press as radio promotion for The American Mercury.

[2] "All received equal treatment," Arthur Unger of The Christian Science Monitor wrote of the presidents and world leaders who were questioned by the Meet the Press panelist.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington chapter of Sigma Delta Chi,[citation needed] and was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1968.