ABC Entertainment Names Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul Senior VP of Communications
By Joe Otterson
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Freeform executive Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul has been named to senior vice president of communications for ABC Entertainment in the wake of the departure of Jori Arancio.
Bulochnikov-Paul will report to Shannon Ryan, president of marketing for and Disney Television Studios. She will be responsible for all strategic corporate communications efforts, consumer press campaigns and awards outreach for the network. The move reunites with Bulochnikov-Paul with Karey Burke, who was formerly head of original programming for Freeform and is now president of ABC Entertainment.
“Joining ABC Entertainment and working alongside Shannon and Karey [Burke] — two of the industry’s most inspiring and creative leaders — is an unmatched opportunity,” said Bulochnikov-Paul. “I look forward to collaborating with our communications team on distinctive campaigns that loudly and meaningfully spread the word about all the breakthrough content that ABC has to offer. As for my fierce Freeform family, I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together and for what I know is still to come.”
In addition, ABC Studios and ABC Entertainment’s vice president of publicty Janet Daily will move to Disney Television Studios. She will continue to focus on the ABC Studios label but will now report to Chris Alexander, executive vice president of corporate communications and publicity for Disney TV. Alexander will now add ABC Studios to his portfolio of responsibilities.
“Working with Tom Ascheim, Naomi was critical in helping put Freeform on the map,” said Ryan. “She is an incredible leader, a gifted strategist and truly one of the brightest and most innovative communications executives in the business. Naomi already has a great shorthand with Karey Burke, which will allow her to hit the ground running, and we’re thrilled to have her lead our talented publicity and communications team at ABC into the future.”
“Chris has successfully led the communications and awards strategies for 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21, so it made perfect sense to also give him oversight of ABC Studios publicity,” Ryan continued. “He and his talented team have done a great job positioning these labels as industry leaders and aligning all three under one best-in-class department will further establish Disney Television Studios as the premier home for creative talent in our business.”
Bulochnikov-Paul most recently served as vice president of communications at Freeform, overseeing strategic communications efforts, program publicity and talent relations. She joined Freeform in 2017 on the heels of the company’s rebrand from ABC Family. She and her team helped launch the now annual Freeform Summit and also launched shows such as “The Bold Type,” “grown-ish,” “Good Trouble” and more. She later briefly moved to Netflix as director of original series publicity before returning to Freeform. She has also held executive positions at companies like Crackle, Current TV, and Al Jazeera America. She was also head of publicity for television production company Wikked Entertainment; and director of publicity for Ish Entertainment, a production company formed under Lionsgate and senior publicist at VH1. She began her career in communications at MTV Networks.
(Pictured: , left; Chris Alexander, right)
