William Martin Nygaard (6 February 1865 – 19 December 1952) was a Norwegian publisher and politician.

Then, in 1900 he became the sole owner of the publishing house and changed the name of the company to H. Aschehoug & Co (W. Nygaard).

In 1895 William Nygaard initiated the founding of the Norwegian Publishers Association, serving as chairman from 1895 to 1922 and 1925 to 1929.

[4] He also fielded as the Liberal Left candidate in Uranienborg in the 1912 election, but only carried 81 votes and lost spectacularly.

[5] He was also a member of the board of Oslo City Museum (1902–1922), the Norwegian Booksellers Association (1905–1918), Saugbrugsforeningen (1914–1932), Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse (1917–1922), Nationaltheatret (1922–1923), Vinmonopolet (1929–1932) and the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design.