Paul Wilmot

Twelve years ago in 1997 we opened Paul Wilmot Communications. I was finishing a six-year run at Conde Nast Publications where I had been Corporate Vice President for Public Relations for the company. As a going away present the art department on the publishing side of Vogue designed our PWC logotype and it’s the one we still use today.

We found space in the form of a 4700 square foot floor loft on Avenue of the Americas at 17th Street in an old building that had been the offices of the music visionary, Bob Giraldi who was best known for producing the Michael Jackson music video, “Thriller” some years before. The place was a wreck and while we occupied temporary space on West 28th Street we completed the renovation here and moved in February 1997. We had a compliment of 12 people at the time and we were thrilled with what the open loft afforded with high ceilings, cream walls, light carpeting and filled with a treasure trove of mid century Knoll furniture I stumbled on in a warehouse in Long Island City. Wendy Goodman did an interiors piece for New York Magazine on the offices and we were off in a dash.

Most of us were a youngish group of people out of college a few years and some right out of school. We began developing magazine editor relationships and got to know broadcasters and newspaper writers and editors mostly in the fashion, accessories and beauty areas.

In a short three years we found we needed more space and were able to take the next floor above us and double our size to almost 10000 square feet, which continues to be our home today. With almost 40 people in the office we have enjoyed steady growth both in terms of clients and headcount over the dozen years we have been around. In September of 2008 a majority stake in the agency was acquired by Fleishman-Hillard, the venerable St. Louis based public relations firm and wholly owned subsidiary of media giant Omnicom.

But that is only the nuts and bolts of what has happened. During this time we have witnessed and been a part of the most dynamic and explosive growth in media that has occurred since, in my opinion television came on the scene. During this period of course there has been a proliferation television channels and shows mostly on cable. Everything has gone global so if you have a profile here as celebrity in film or music, have a fashion line or even market cosmetics chances are you known the world over through celebrity publications, television following red carpet and awards shows and truly through the “elephant in the room”, the internet.

So this is my blog, I will chronicle some of my travels, tell some stories I’ve gathered over the 35 years I’ve been doing this, offer some observations along the way and happily react to whatever questions or statements you might care to contribute.

Hopefully I may inform along the way, amuse sometimes but most of all appreciate the opportunity to have a voice to express opinions I may have (oh hell I’ll have a lot of them…can’t help myself) along the way.