Paul Christopher Johnson
editEarly life
Paul C. Johnson born August 30, 1964, in San Francisco, California. He was raised in the small town of Albany California where he attended Marin School, Albany Little League Baseball, Cub Scouts and Webelos. The family stayed in Albany until his father's untimely death on St. Patricks Day, March 17, 1973. In June 1975, his mother, an Irish native, moved the family back to her roots and family home in Dublin Ireland where Mr. Johnson was educated at St. Andrews College [1]in Blackrock, Co. Dublin. He moved back to California to continue his studies and became a member of the Alpha Psi Omega fraternity [2]. He eventually graduated from the University of California, Berkeley [3]in 1986.
Early career (1986–1989)
He worked in various media jobs at News Corporation and Vodafone before moving to New York and accepting a job at The Hollywood Reporter in April 1989. He was then transferred to head up their International headquarters in London three months later.
Mr. Johnson spent 14 years at Nielsen Business Media [4], before joining Reed Midem, in various executive positions most recently as International Sales and Marketing Director for The Hollywood Reporter, Showest in Las Vegas, ShowEast in Orlando, Cinema Expo in Amsterdam and Cine Asia in Bangkok/ Singapore/ Hong Kong.
In 2000, While at Nielsen Business Media he founded the annual European Media CEO Summit in Cliveden, England with former Deputy Chairman, Merrill Lynch Europe. This initiative encouraged more understanding and partnerships between the top European media companies in Europe at the time as well as fueling the merger and acquisitions in the European entertainment industry.
The Director of the TV Division, Reed Midem
Paul C. Johnson (aka PJ Johnson) is the Director of the Television Divison, Reed Midem Paris. He serves as Creative and Executive Director of the two largest entertainment content markets in the world, MIPTV featuring Milia[5] and MIPCOM [6], where he is responsible for managing and developing Reed Midem's global TV and content entertainment markets and screening events. He has been Executive Producing these shows for Reed Midem since 2003 with a collective and transversal team of over 200.
Mr. Johnson oversees both MIPTV and MIPCOM for Reed Midem which are entertainment content shows based that group more 13,000 professionals from entertainment content companies [7] or [8] to digital media companies [9] or [10]and also advertising agenies [11]including many global brands from over 106 countries twice a year in Cannes France. He is also responsible for producing the two largest entertainment content screenings events before MIPTV featuring Milia: MIPDOC [12] and MIPCOM: MIPCOM Junior [13] where entertainment professionals screen more than 75,000 programmes over two days.
During his tenure, Reed Midem Television Group's properties have experienced tremendous growth. By creating industry trends, the markets participation and audience has grown between 10% - 12% percent annually from the 2003-08. The markets embraced change and evolution long before it was fashionable by encouring digital media companies to participate (Reed Midem's digital market Milia was merged into the TV Division in 2003) and advertising agencies and brands.
Mr. Johnson has been responsible for many entertainment industry firsts [14]. MIPTV saw the launch of the first ever Emmy Award show outside the United States (The International Interactive Emmy Awards at MIPTV) , MIPTV’s Content 360 is an innovative pitching session and awards that offers multimedia producers the opportunity to pitch their programmes to TV and all digital platforms while sharing in the over $120,000 in development financing for the winners. Mr. Johnson Executive Produced both the Emmy Awards and Content 360 which were responsible for raising awareness to new ways of financing and producing entertainment content.
In 2007, Reed Midem and MIPTV launched the Green World Award with the inaugural environmentla activities and recipient Yann Arthus-Bertrand [15]. The second annual Green World Award at MIPTV 2008 will go to NHK for their 50 years of environmentally friendly programming [16]. The Green World Award recognizes personalities or companies raising environmental challenges awareness or working to implement innovative strategies and solutions.
In 2005 Mr. Johnson teamed up with Kofi Annan [17] and the United Nations GMAI (Global Media AIDS Initiative)to produce a CEO roundtable at MIPTV in Cannes. The initiative was created to ensure broader understanding of the Global Aids threat and to engage the global media industry leaders to helping communicating how to reduce the spread of AIDS. Under the auspicies of the then Under Secretary General of the United Nations Shashi Tharoor [18], Bill Roedy, Chairman of MTV Networks International and former GMAI Chairman with Mr. Johnson they collected many global CEOs and media leaders to agree upon best practises to fight AIDS locally and globally. Former US President Bill Clinton gave the keynote via satellite to the group [19].
In addition to his duties at Reed MIDEM, he is also an International Emmy Awards board member [www.iemmys.tv/]. He has also held posts on the Management board of BAFTA (British Academy of Television Arts)[20].
A keen sportsman, Paul Johnson holds a degree in Mass Communications and Film from the University of California, Berkeley. An Irishand U.S. citizen, he is married with one daughter living in Paris, France.