NY- Former Newsday publisher Robert Johnson faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday to collecting kiddie porn on his office computer and then trying to destroy the evidence when the feds caught up with him.

Johnson, a 60-year-old married father of two grown children, admitted he downloaded at least two child-pornography movie files – including one called “Real Child Rape” – in the headquarters of a Manhattan financial publishing firm where he was CEO.

His guilty plea in Manhattan federal court was a stunning blow to the Illinois-born Johnson, who had been a prominent corporate executive and had served nine years on New York’s Board of Regents and 15 years with the Partnership for New York City.

When the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began to go after the estimated 200 U.S. clients of a Belarus-based porn-distribution firm, they found one was Johnson, then head of Bowne & Co in Manhattan.

Johnson had left News day, where he served as publisher and chief exec utive, in 1994, after eight years.

The feds said beginning around April 2002 Johnson, who then lived in Huntington, L.I., used his office computer to access child-porn Web sites.

In May 2004 after investigators contacted the company – and he learned of the probe – Johnson obliterated more than 12,000 files from his hard disks.

Johnson retired from the firm for “personal reasons” and quit as Long Island’s representative on the regents.

He was indicted in June 2005 on charges of receiving child porn, collecting it and destroying evidence, allegations that carry a maximum of 50 years in prison.

Efforts to reach Johnson and his lawyer yesterday were unsuccessful. Johnson faces up to 10 years on the possession charge and 20 years on the destruction charge when he is sentenced Oct. 27.