Hey, Answerman!

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Given the recent downturn in (and generally low) DVD sales, I'd be a bit more selective than other companies.  I've seen several industry personnel and anime journalists comment on how the increased number of new licenses has, contrary to intent, decreased profits for companies that have done so.  Despite all you hear about anime's "rising popularity," it is still a very niche market, one that has been oversaturated with titles in the past couple of years.  Thus, I believe being more selective with licenses is a necessity, at least for the time being.  Considering that the release delay experienced with almost all domestic releases is a major concern for consumers, being more selective might sound as if it would cause even further delay.  What I mean by being more selective, however, is that I'd simply license fewer shows, not that I'd take longer to evaluate them.  In fact, I firmly agree with the notion that quicker licensing is key in alleviating the domestic release delay.  The difficulty with that is how to pick out the flops from the hits, which is, of course, is really impossible to do 100% of the time.

I would spend most of my time and resources on titles with lots of pre-release hype, especially those with popular and quality original material (i.e. games, manga, light novels, etc.) that I, and a few others whose opinions I trust, would judge.  Of course, popular titles aren't always as good as their fanbases try to make you believe, hence the judgment, but often there are titles that sell well despite their mediocrity, such as sequels to popular series.  I would take that into consideration as well.
For any given year, I'd have a set range of how many new licenses I'd like to make.  The slots would first be filled with the popular titles that made the cut.  The remaining licenses would be for the niche titles that I feel deserve a domestic release for their quality and/or untapped market potential.  Finding such titles would take more time and effort than weeding out which popular ones I'm interested in, thus I probably wouldn't license more than just a few.

As for genres, I'm not very picky, and as the head honcho of a licensing company, nobody should be.  However, there are significant differences between the amount of sales of titles within certain genres.  Overlooking that would be a terrible mistake, one that I would not make, even if it meant bypassing a series I really liked.  Bottom line, I wouldn't touch any series that I wasn't sure I could turn a profit with.

A recent trend with some domestic releases is to not include an English dub.  I believe this is a good move for the more niche titles, but popular titles and those with strong market potential would all be accompanied with an English track, as titles with English tracks have consistently sold better than those without.

One thing I think American licensing companies don't do enough of right now is advertising.  I assume that most of them don't do it because they don't think it would have a large enough impact on sales.  This is true with many forms of advertising, but given the steady decline in sales, something must be done.  TV commercials are expensive, and would most likely be ineffective even on most of the major cable channels.  However, given the recent rise in popularity of Heroes and other similar shows, I believe even just a few properly placed commercials would do the anime industry a world of good.  Of course, TV isn't the only avenue for marketing.  I was in New York City a couple years ago, before The Boondocks, now a popular comedy series, premiered on Adult Swim.  I was only driving through on my way to Dartmouth, but I saw an ad for it on a billboard and a few on the sides of buses.  Such ads are significantly cheaper than TV ads, and despite the limited exposure they provide, it's better than nothing.  I would invest in those and other similar marketing strategies for a year or two, evaluate their impact on sales, and unless they contributed to a loss in profit, I would continue with them.  Additionally, I would sink some money into a TV ad every now and then.  One reason I think such marketing tends to fail is because companies don't stick with it long enough.  Having regular commercials is fiscally impossible, which is why I'd stagger them.  Have a couple short ads one day every couple months, and evaluate it the same way as the other marketing schemes, though not nearly as leniently.  If they don't show any significant positive impact on profits, I'd still continue to use them, but spread them out even further, putting an extra couple months between them until they break even.

That's all I have in terms of what American companies can do, but I have another suggestion that I believe Japanese companies should consider, one that would help both the American and Japanese markets.  In every recent statement made concerning the state of the anime industry, fansubs have been given lots of attention, and for good reason.  I know several people who don't buy anime simply because they can download fansubs and/or rips of American releases.  There is no simple solution to this problem, for all attempts at stopping fansubbing activity have proven unsuccessful, save C&D letters, but those can only do so much.  One of the most common defenses for fansubbers is the lack of simultaneous broadcast, or anything even remotely close to it, outside Japan.  This is a genuine problem, but I believe it can be resolved without spending too much money.  While licensing broadcast rights to TV networks in America would make the Japanese companies some extra money, I seriously doubt anyone would be interested.  Moreover, the fanbase we're trying to provide for here consists of downloaders, not TV viewers, thus the method for addressing this complaint is over the Internet.  Fansubbers do what they do because they believe their work is necessary for generating interest.  If a similar legal alternative was implemented by the Japanese companies, fansubbers would have no reason to continue their work.  Naturally, some would continue for one reason or another, but with a "legal fansub" already out there, the companies would have a much stronger case for fighting against the remaining groups.  What I think the Japanese
companies should seriously consider is asking translators (and possibly editors) from some of the better fansubbing groups to work for them, rather than independently.  Some would probably turn the offer down, but at least the offer was made.  Whether they have a newly hired, former fansubber doing the work or a veteran translator already on staff is inconsequential.  The effort to include the fansubbers was made, and whether they accept the offer or not, there would be someone translating and editing the dialogue and screen text into English, which the company would then use for an online release.  Given its massive popularity among the online anime community, BitTorrent would be an ideal avenue for release.  Of course, such a release would be no different from a fansub, other than its legality.  In order for the parent company to make a profit, they could edit commercials into the episodes, and considerably longer ones than those included in the Japanese broadcast.  Of course, Japanese companies wouldn't be very interested in investing in such ads, but I'd wager there are some American and/or online companies that would be.  This is merely a rough idea from some random fan, but I firmly believe it, or some revised version of it, could seriously help the anime industry on both sides of the Pacific.

Finally, from Nathan Sanzone-McDowell:

Well, I'd hate to restrict my fictional company's scope to any specific genre, but I would like to see more titles available in the market that have an intended adult audience, but for reasons other then the inclusion of "adult" levels of graphic violence and sexual themes. Less important then a show's setting would be the style of animation (not necessarily "realistic", but avoiding the use of overly-exaggerated "cartoonish" gags), the plot's plausibility (within the context of its setting), and the quality of the dialogue. So, without in any way disparaging other types of anime (or viewers), my [fictional] company would license the sort of material that appeals more readily to adult sophistication, including qualities such as complex—but not convoluted—plots, believable, less stereotypical characterizations, and subtle, thought-provoking outcomes.

As for how I'd sell it, allow me to further divide that portion of your question. First, I'll address the manner in which my company  would prepare the anime for a local audience. To begin with, all efforts to preserve the original context and tone of any given property would me paramount. That means not changing character's names to more familiar local equivalents, no tampering with the dialogue to change the meaning or intent, or substituting context-inappropriate English for Japanese idiom or slang. No altering the original score, and absolutely no, clipping, editing, or reanimating portions of the video for any reason. If a title is not presentable to the local market with its original content intact, then it would not be an appropriate property for my company to license. Continuing in that vein, while every attempt would be made to translate anime so as to be easily understood by an English-speaking audience with no prior knowledge of Japanese language or culture, the use of optional annotation (with additional explanatory material available depending on viewing format) would be available to inform viewers (when necessary) as to the meaning of various idioms, colloquialisms, slang-words, culture references, and bodily gestures that typical localizations tend to either omit, or extensively alter. In regards to English-language overdubbing, every attempt would be made to match the vocal qualities of the original voice actors, and the English actor's lines would be recorded so as to follow the pacing, tone, and inflection of the original Japanese dialog as closely as possible. In addition, when in the context of an explicit or apparent Japanese setting (as opposed to a non-Japanese local or setting, either non-fictional or fictional), manners of address would not be altered from their original form (either in the English-language overdub or in the subtitles). To reiterate, any alterations that would result in a loss meaning, context, or intended tone would be avoided wherever possible.

To finish the second half of your question, I'd like to look at distribution methods. To begin with, I think that traditional broadcast television is a poor outlets for the medium, being too restrictive for a number of reasons which should be unnecessary to address here (in regards to viewer choices regarding the audio dub, subtitling, on-screen annotations, and additional reference material), however, the imminent arrival of mandatory digital broadcasting may alleviate some of the restrictions to that method of distribution. In regards to cable and satellite broadcast, "on-demand" and other advanced features utilized with those technologies could adequately provide for sufficient viewing choices. In regards to the sale of DVDs, my company would not follow the industry trend of selling highly priced "volumes" of 2-3 episodes each, followed by an equally overpriced "box sets". Anime would be sold in collections of single seasons (where applicable), at a price comparable to mainstream DVD releases (as opposed to the "collectors' market" pricing of most anime DVDs on the market). Furthermore, methods of digital distribution would be aggressively pursued, from advertising-supported streaming video, to both purchase and rental structured downloads (iTunes Store, XBox Live, Sony PSN, IPTV, etc.). Finally, my company would attempt to pursue the viability of licensing and localizing anime concurrent with its production and broadcast in Japan, to reduce or eliminate the time-gap between anime's availability in the Japanese market, and its availability in the R1 market.

As even a cursory survey will show, Japan's most popular properties have achieved immense success in other markets worldwide, and while it may take several years for that material to be licensed, localized, and distributed to other markets through legitimate, commercial channels, millions of viewers worldwide routinely watch these properties through illegitimate means, in a variety of languages, and in many cases less then a single week after an anime may have been broadcast on Japan's own television networks. If we look at the music industry, where some studies have reported that users who illegally download music simultaneously represent the portion of music consumers who purchase the most significant quantity of music through legitimate means, then we might make the assertion that the consumers of anime who download illegal fansubs also represents the most significant portion of anime consumption through legal channels. If we accept that the previous statement is true, then we might assert that the illicit consumption of anime is the result of the failure of the industry to meet the needs of its consumers, in delivering it's product in a timely and suitable manner (a vacuum in the the market which continues to be filled by illicit fansubbers). I believe that my company might potentially achieve significant success, by significantly reducing the time in which it takes to deliver localized anime to the R1 market, and by using digital distribution as the primary means by which to reach its audience.