William Osgood Taylor (January 8, 1871 – July 15, 1955) was an American newspaper executive who served as publisher of The Boston Globe from 1921 to 1955.

[3] Taylor was born in 1871 in Nashua, New Hampshire, attended Boston Latin School, and was an 1893 graduate of Harvard College.

[4] Taylor and Mary Moseley (1873–1944) were married in 1894, and had two sons and three daughters.

[2] His son William Davis Taylor then became the third publisher of the Globe.

[3] A grandson and namesake, William O. Taylor II, would also serve as publisher from 1978 to 1997.