At the age of fifteen, he won a national high school editorial writing contest, and as a senior secured top honors in a similar competition held by the University of Wisconsin.
Also in his senior year, he served as the editor of the Pawhuska High School newspaper, The Wah-Sha-She (Osage for "the water people"), which under his direction earned national recognition by winning several interscholastic publication contests.
Miller worked periodically as both reporter and city editor for the Pawhuska Daily Journal-Capital – his first experience in the larger world of journalism, and one which provided him invaluable knowledge in newspapering.
In his sophomore year, he continued to gain experience as a newspaperman at the same time that lack of money threatened to force him to leave school and get a job.
His supporters had cautioned that if their candidate lost the election, Miller would be unable to stay in school – a prophecy fulfilled that nevertheless offered him other opportunities in newspapering.
He took charge of Associated Press news service and personnel for the entire state of Pennsylvania as chief of bureau with offices at Harrisburg in July 1937.
posting in the nation's capital, Chief of Bureau, Washington, D.C. Miller would become one of the most successful journalists of the twentieth century, eventually ascending to the presidencies of both the Associated Press and the Gannett Co., Inc.
But if you have to say what was the most exciting assignment or years, you certainly have to say Washington..."[16] On 29 June 1942, one day after the Germans opened their second summer offensive of World War II in the Soviet Union, Miller wrote to Kent Cooper in New York: "I went to work here today.
[17] While Miller never did keep a diary, he did assemble files of confidential memoranda dutifully prepared from off-the-record meetings with many of the nation's top military and political leaders.
Foremost among them were both wartime presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman; Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall; and Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet (COMINCH)/Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King.
Other notable figures who provided Miller with confidential information included British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie; Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox; Commander of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater General Joseph Stilwell; Chairman of the War Production Board Donald Nelson; former secretary of war and one of Roosevelt's personal overseas representatives, Major General Pat Hurley; U.S.
Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman; Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy; Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area General Douglas MacArthur; Commander of the Far East Air Forces Lieutenant General George Kenney, and Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, Jr.[18] Arranged chronologically for the three years from March, 1943 to March, 1946, the files contain information regarding both America's military strategy during the last two-and-a-half years of the war and its leaders' visions for the postwar world.
"[19] Soon after joining Gannett on August 1, 1947, Miller moved his family to the company’s headquarters at Rochester, New York, and soon rose to prominence in its civic affairs.
[23] The following year, Miller accompanied a group of newspaper publishers, radio executives, and officials on an eight-day trip to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina as guests of Pan American World Airways.
[26] The following year, Miller visited Guatemala in the wake of the anti-Communist counterrevolution, and later submitted a series of eyewitness accounts of conditions and prospects under the then-new government of U.S.-backed strongman, Carlos Castillo Armas.
[33] The next May, Miller returned to his adopted home state, and addressed students at the University of Oklahoma on Journalism Day – one of hundreds of speeches he would deliver throughout the remainder of his tenure at Gannett.
[34] Recognition for his many contributions to journalism continued as Ursinus College of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, bestowed upon him its Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in June 1959.
[35] The new decade began with Miller’s election to the presidency of the Rochester Convention and Publicity Bureau, and his receipt of the Lester P. Slade Award for "outstanding journalistic contributions" in January 1960.
In June, he departed for a 23-day tour of Russia that featured an interview with the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Nikita S. Khrushchev.
[39] Following its successful publication, Miller delivered six addresses that year to audiences across the country, including serving as Master of Ceremonies at the Rochester Chamber of Commerce 75th anniversary dinner.
[41] Miller then took up where he left off the year before, and beginning in February spoke to numerous appreciative audiences eager to hear about his trip to the Soviet Union.
[43] President Kennedy died of his gunshot wounds in Dallas, Texas, four days later, and Miller was one of those who attended the funeral in St. Matthews Cathedral, Washington, D.C., on November 25.
[48] Ten days later Miller was in London for the funeral of the Right Honorable Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, although he quickly returned to New York upon hearing of the death of his friend and mentor, former general manager of the Associated Press, Kent Cooper.
In December, he gave the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Lecture at the University of Michigan, and before the year was out found himself the new president of the Lend-a-Hand Society.
Miller’s Pacific-area trip in the summer of 1971 netted him visits to Honolulu, Hawaii; Guam, Manila, the Philippines; Tokyo, Japan; Hong Kong, and Seoul, South Korea.
In 1974, as Chairman of both Gannett and the Associated Press, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky.
They continued to maintain their principal residence near Rochester, but following Miller’s retirement began to spend increasing amounts of time at their second home in Palm Beach, Florida.
A little over a year after his retirement he suffered a stroke at his Palm Beach home in January 1980 that limited movement on the right side of his body, and affected his speech.
In 1986, the Gannett Foundation established a $1 million program in Miller’s name for reporting regional or local interest stories from the nation’s capital.
A close friend of Paul’s, former U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., later spoke at the memorial services held on August 28, 1991, at the Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester.