Behind the Scenes: A Tale of Connecting With CPM

Apologies, Helpers - this week, we're doing things a bit differently, as this is a warm-up to end the Anime Expo slump we entered. The polls for next week go out tomorrow. Thanks for your patience! 😄

So, this is a story that I really haven't shared much outside of a small group of friends. Still, I do think it's pretty amusing, overall.

Before we begin, though, we have to go back - back to a distant era known as 2004. American Idol was a weekly obsession, as Friends was entering its final seasons. Usher was dominating the music world, meanwhile, with Yeah! and Burn, as Alicia Keys' second album was making waves.

In the anime world, fans were (slowly) downloading digisubs for shows like Gantz, Gundam SEED Destiny, and Elfen Lied. At the same time, they were pretty openly griping about Media Factory, who put the kibosh on fansub distributions for Akane Maniax.

For R1 DVD Collectors, it was a golden era. Chris Beveridge's Anime on DVD was an arbiter for all things anime, as terms like "Progressive Scan" and "Anamorphic Widescreen" started to enter the common vernacular. Outstanding titles like Witch Hunter Robin, Azumanga Daioh, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex were hitting store shelves nearly every week. Neon Genesis Evangelion was seeing a resurgence through a series of "Director's Cut" DVDs, and AnimEigo was delighting old-school fans with the Kimagure Orange Road OVAs.

It was in this world that Anime Dream was finally starting to hit its stride. A round of hiring saw a ton of new blood entering the ranks, including a reviewer who carried the alias of "Shengokai", a reviewer who went by the moniker "Puppet Princess", and some dude named "Crim the Crimson Lightning" - don't ask about Crim, we don't talk about Crim. But if you're listening, Ben, never forget the air horns.

Joking aside, though, by late 2003, I was feeling a bit restless in my post as a reviewer. Also, Geneshaft absolutely ruined me as a critic because it made me bitter and snarky. Seriously, this was the show that snuffed my enthusiasm whole-stop. I literally begged Matt to be put on News Desk. iIt was THAT. FREAKING. BAD.

Screw everything about this show.

Rather than quit, though, I jumped over to the news desk. And, from here, I started to feel like we could do more.

I should note, 2004 was weird. Like, super weird. We had two major news sources dueling for attention: Anime News Network and Anime News Service. The latter was more like a wire service at the time.

Anime News Network, meanwhile, was... different from how you know it today. I'm trying to think of a nice way to say this, but it boils down to this: ANN was not allowed to be sourced at Anime Dream, unless it was live con coverage. Matt did not deem them reliable on other matters at the time, due to a number of reasons.

Now, mind you, ANN has since grown immensely and they've become the equivalent of CNN for the anime world since then. Heck, some of my good friends are writers there!

That said, I kind of had to get this out there because it sets context.

With our sources limited, I was pretty much hamstrung as a reporter. I started to get creative, as I built my own beat, composed of Japanese and English sources. At the same time, though, I had a pretty big blind spot in the western industry. We had PR contacts with two parties at the time: Bandai Entertainment and TOKYOPOP. That TOKYOPOP - the one that scammed writers and botched the localization for the Initial D anime.

I really wanted to cast a wider net at the time, so we could get more sources in our stable, and more titles to work with for our writing team.

In short, I was hungry for news, and

 I was 20. I was fearless. I felt like I was invincible.

Looking at the landscape, I ended up choosing Central Park Media as my first targeted connection. Not only was it fairly local, but the publisher was in the middle of a boom period, and titles under their banner were hitting at a blistering pace. Also, as they were smaller, they didn't seem anywhere near as daunting as ADV Films or Pioneer at the time.

With my target in sight, I got to work.

I set a goal, to have a contact with Central Park Media by the end of February 2004. And, in my waking moments, I began to pore through every single source I could. I pulled up old press releases, combed through business listings, and even acquired the New York City phone book from my local library!

Calling the main number proved to be a dead-end, so I dropped that quickly. Instead, I spent days, combing through any and all resources aimed at press and industry, looking for a lead.

In late January, I found my opportunity. An outlet had forgotten to scrub their press release, and posted it wholesale to their website. I had a name, Sam Napolitano, and a phone number. Suppressing an urge to get giddy, I picked up the phone and dialed. All the while, my heart was thumping right out of its chest.

One ring.

Two rings.

Three rings.

Click! "Sam Napolitano," a voice on the line said. I stammered and stuttered, almost shocked that someone would pick up at the time. "H-Hello,” I introduced myself. “I'm from Anime Dream, and..."

It felt like an eternity as I tried to get through this spiel that I had rehearsed in my head for days at that point, but he got the point pretty well. "You'd like a contact with us?" I confirmed, "OK, then let me put you in touch with Ivette Perez. She's the one who's best equipped to handle this."

We traded emails, and said our goodbyes, and that was about it. I had landed my first contact! Central Park would go on to be an amazing partner in the years that followed, helping us with promotions like our World of Narue spread (coming soon to a flashback section) and Otaku Unite! Coverage (NOT coming soon to a flashback section - long story), and numerous giveaways for titles like Alien Nine, Legend of Himiko, and others.

I told Matt that evening, and he was definitely impressed... albeit not surprised. "I knew you'd end up doing this, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly," he remarked. A few days later, he bestowed the title of "Communications Director" to me, and I basically became our go-to for all media contacts going forward.

About a year later, Ryu ended up quitting the site in pretty a messy fashion, ultimately trying to get folks to undercut Matt, and drag contacts elsewhere. It was drama, it was ugly, and it was, well... it was the politics of a media outlet! That story, though, I won't be talking further about in this column space. That's not the type of stories you're here to read... I think.