American
media entrepreneur, Andrew Paulson, died of cancer on Tuesday, reports
Kommersant newspaper, citing the Facebook page of Alexey Kazakov, former chief
editor of the popular Moscow magazine, Bolshoi Gorod. Paulson was 59 years old.
Paulson was
one of the founders of Afisha Publishing House and SUP, and he played a major
role in bringing modern international standards to Russia’s magazine world.
Originally
from Baltimore, Maryland, Paulson graduated in 1981 from Yale University with a
degree in French literature. He came to Russia in 1993 to work in publishing,
and in 1998 he became one of the founders and president of Afisha Publishing,
whose flagship magazine was Afisha, the premier entertainment and weekly
listings in Russia’s two capitals – Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The company’s other publications included the
bi-weekly Bolshoi Gorod, and the monthly travel magazine, MIR.
When Afisha Publishing was sold to billionaire
Vladimir Potanin in 2006, Paulson left the company.
That same year, Paulson teamed up with
businessman Alexander Mamut to create SUP, which launched the Russian language
version of the social network blogging service, LiveJournal.
SUP also created Gazeta, one of Russia’s
leading online news websites. Paulson was SUP’s chairman of the board of
directors.