Mediagazer: How anime-focused Crunchyroll turned a streaming service for a niche audience into a global powerhouse with 1M paid subscribers (Matt Pressberg/The Wrap)

7:15 AM ET, February 27, 2017

Top News:

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:

Amazon Studios wins its first-ever Oscars with best foreign language film for “The Salesman” and best original screenplay for “Manchester by the Sea” — Amazon Studios won its first-ever Academy Awards on Sunday night, taking home three Oscar statues …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, /Film, Telegraph, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, CNN, Highsnobiety, The Guardian, LA Observed, WGN-TV, Variety, Axios, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter and New York Times

Annie Karni / Politico:

Sources: Sean Spicer warns staff against leaking to media in a meeting that included a check of phones, saying apps like Confide and Signal violate Records Act — The push includes random phone checks overseen by White House lawyers. — Press Secretary Sean Spicer is cracking …

Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:

How Robert Mercer steers politics through Facebook data and media, using Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart, the Media Research Center, aid to Leave.EU, and more — With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network

New York Times:

A frustrated Trump, used to controlling media with strategic tabloid leaks, ramps up attacks on an entrenched White House press corps and broader media — WASHINGTON — The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet …

Pete Brown / Columbia Journalism Review:

Study explores how 14 publishers are experimenting to reach audiences across 16 different social platforms — Despite publishers' disillusionment with low financial returns, there is no sign of them retreating from publishing material directly onto Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and other distribution platforms.

McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:

Profile of Tucker Carlson, who as a newly minted primetime Fox News anchor has emerged as one of the most powerful people in media — Tucker Carlson is selling me hard on the swamp. It is an unseasonably warm afternoon in late January, and we are seated at a corner table in Monocle …

Matt Pressberg / The Wrap:

How anime-focused Crunchyroll turned a streaming service for a niche audience into a global powerhouse with 1M paid subscribers — Anime, has long had a devoted — if niche — fan base in the U.S. But with anime-focused streaming service Crunchyroll hitting 1 million paid subscribers this month …

Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed:

YouTube has attracted little scrutiny for hosting and rewarding creators of fake news, conspiracy theories, and hate speech — David Seaman is the Pizzagate King of the Internet. — On Twitter, Seaman posts dozens of messages a day to his 66,000 followers, often about the secret cabal …

Discussion: @bernstein and @bernstein

Boris Kachka / Vulture:

Exploring why New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood was fired after a management search of his work email — Charles Isherwood woke up on the morning of February 3 with one of the best jobs in the country: second-string theater critic for the New York Times.

Discussion: @vulture, @maxfalkowitz, @stacylemelle, @tedgioia, @bringsjohn, @kevinpokeeffe and @felixsalmon

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Interview with Mashable CCO on how beats, quality over quantity, and focus have increased unique views by 78% YoY and video views by 452% YoY to 320M/month — Last year, Mashable laid off about two-dozen employees, cutting its politics and international reporters in a push for more video.