Bill Dyer entered the newspaper business as editor of the Brown University's The Brown Daily Herald and The Brown Jug. After graduation, Dyer spent a year as a reporter for the Syracuse Journal, followed by 16 years with the Syracuse Post-Standard as advertising salesman, then manager, and finally director. After four years as lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy (1941–44), he became general manager of the Indianapolis Star and Indianapolis News in 1949. Dyer became vice president of the Indianapolis newspapers in 1958 and president of the Indianapolis and Muncie newspapers in 1975.
