Andrew Paulson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Paulson (born in 1958, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American entrepreneur working in Russia. He is the founder and former CEO of a Russian magazine company, Afisha Publishing House, and is the founder and CEO of the online Russian media company, SUP.
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[edit] Early Years
Paulson was brought up in America and England. Leading up to his undergraduate years he pursued oncology and neurophysiology research at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Yale University and at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. During college he became involved in the performing arts, running the classical music division of a commercial radio station WYBC, managing in New England a roster of opera singers and instrumentalists for the Herbert Barrett Agency, and founding The New Theater Company where he produced and directed numerous plays, including Dürrenmatt's "The Visit," Brecht's “Baal,” the “Oresteia” and Marsha Norman's “Getting Out” which was Jodie Foster's stage debut He graduated with a BA in French Literature and Literary Criticism from Yale University in 1981 and attended the Yale School of Drama. From 1982-86 he lived in Berlin and Paris writing ("Minister without Portfolio," "Lord Jim," "Playing with Fire," "The Death of Sally Bowles" and "The Masterbuilder"); from 1987-93 he lived in Paris, London and Milan shooting fashion and advertising photography (e.g., Condé Nast, Yves Saint-Laurent, DuPont/Lycra); and during this period he co-founded the Paris conceptual photography gallery, Urbi et Orbi, and founded a commercial graphic design studio, Pourriture Noble.
[edit] Pre-Afisha
Paulson moved to Russia and from 1993 until 1998 developed several print publishing projects in Moscow (Delovie Lyudi (Russian: Деловые люди) for the French Groupe Hersant; Ponedyelnik (Russian: Понедельник), an independent news/business weekly; and with the Bank of Moscow, an entertainment bi-weekly Vechernyaya Moskva (Russian: Вечерняя Москва)).
[edit] Afisha
Shortly after the Russian economic crisis of August, 1998, with $1m in start-up capital, together with Anton Kudryashov and Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, he founded Afisha (Russian: Афиша), a listings and entertainment magazine which quickly became the cultural touchstone of Moscow and St. Petersburg; afisha.ru extended Afisha throughout the country with local partnerships and local content. Afisha is one of only a very few significant indigenous ‘brands’ in any sector created in Russia since Perestroika.
Bolshoi Gorod (Russian: Большой город), a bi-weekly general-interest free news-weekly was launched in Moscow in 2002 and local editions have since appeared in numerous cities. MIR, a monthly glossy magazine for travel and travel lifestyle for Russia's 'golden youth' was launched in 2003. The media group Paulson built up around Afisha and Bolshoi Gorod achieved a turnover of $25m in 2005 and was sold to ProfMedia.
[edit] SUP
In 2006, Paulson, together with Alexander Mamut co-founded SUP, an online media company. SUP rapidly became one of the largest online projects in Russia: social networking (LiveJournal) [1], sports ([2] Championat) and internet advertising (+SOL and Victory SA).
