Ken Lawson Promoted to Senior VP, General Sales Manager at Twentieth Television

Ken Lawson has been named senior VP and general sales manager, broadcast syndication, for Twentieth Television, said Greg Meidel, president of Twentieth Television, on Monday.

In this role, Lawson will be responsible for overseeing all broadcast sales initiatives on behalf of Twentieth Television and will report to Meidel.

“With well over two decades of knowledge, experience and sales leadership at Twentieth, Lawson is an invaluable asset to the company and I am pleased to announce this well-deserved elevation,” said Meidel in a statement. 

Shows that Lawson will be tasked with selling to the marketplace include Twentieth Century Fox’s Fresh Off the Boat,The Carmichael Show, Life in Pieces, Rosewood and Empire.

Most recently, Lawson served as senior VP, national sales manager, of Twentieth Television reporting to Paul Franklin, former executive VP and general sales manager, broadcast sales. Franklin recently took a voluntary buyout at Twentieth Television and was subsequently hired as president of CBS Television Distribution.

As senior VP, national sales manager for Twentieth, Lawson oversaw the company’s Los Angeles and Chicago regional sales offices. 

His most recent projects include the broadcast syndication launches of Family Guy, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family and Last Man Standing, which is premiering on TV stations this fall. Additionally, Lawson handles sales for first-run programs Divorce Court and Dish Nation.

Lawson joined Twentieth Television in 1989 as an intern in the company’s research department while earning his bachelor of science degree in business at the University of Southern California.  

Upon graduating from USC, Lawson served as a research analyst for the company before being promoted to senior analyst and shortly thereafter, moving to Twentieth Television’s sales department in Los Angeles as a sales trainee. In 1995 he was transferred to the company’s New York office to serve as division manager, eastern region. That was followed by a promotion to VP, broadcast sales, central region, to manage Twentieth Television’s Chicago operation.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.