Dallas Middaugh moves to Crunchyroll

Early manga adapter Dallas Middaugh, who has been involved in most of the major moves that changed manga from an obscure niche in US fandom to a permanent part of the pop culture landscape, has left his position as Senior Director of Penguin Random House Publisher Services to join Crunchyroll as Head of Brand and Community. He’ll work with the streaming anime service to expand the brand globally.

“With his experience and understanding of our audience and the Manga category, Dallas will be able to contribute invaluably to expanding the Crunchyroll brand and further deepening the relationship to our audience,” said Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao in a statement .

“Crunchyroll currently brings Anime and Manga to millions of passionate fans,” said Dallas Middaugh. “We have opportunities to reach an even larger audience and bring that audience not just more content, but more fun and exciting ways to interact with it. I’m looking forward to engaging with the community that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of for many years, and providing more ways for them to connect with and experience the best that Anime and Manga — and Crunchyroll — have to offer.”

At Random House, Middaugh oversaw their partnership with Kodansha that saw such blockbusters as Attack on Titan. Prior to that he worked in RH’s own in-house Del Rey manga division; co-founded publisher Seven Seas; and served as marketing director for Viz during the crucial 2000-2003 period. In short, he’s da man.

Crunchyroll offers streaming anime such as Naruto Shippuden, Attack on Titan, and One Piece, and also allows subscribers to read manga and purchase related merchandise. It gained prominence by offering close-to-simultaneous access to hit Japanese shows soon after they aired.