Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. I think it makes him a bad role model for the rest of his team.. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. As you know, one reason that I dont believe that publications should write about themselves is because I fear it damages perceived external credibility in editorial independence, which, if anything, makes keeping advertisers at bay harder, not easier. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. Heres The REAL Clip, Christian Walker GOES OFF on Predator Matt Schlapp for Allegedly Groping Male Campaign Staffer: Hes Done This Before, Im Sure!, LOL. "There's been a lot of pain in this, but it's worth it to get properties that are as great as these properties are," Spanfeller said of G/O's 11 publications, which include Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion, Lifehacker, The Root, and Kotaku. Political affiliation Definition | Law Insider Successfully sold . [15][16] In January 2020 the GMG union, which represents the staff of G/O media, announced a vote of no confidence in CEO Jim Spanfeller citing, among other issues, a lack of willingness to negotiate for "functional editorial independence protections. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. (Pontius declined to comment. According to Great Hill Partners website, Spanfeller has led comparable media platforms and positioned them for successful strategic exit, which probably means something to someone, somewhere, but Spanfeller is perhaps best known for dramatically increasing Forbes.coms focus on digital advertising (Spanfeller also previously served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau). Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. For instance, Rogers, who sits in a corner office in New York, still hasnt been formally announced as a new employee internally or externally, and sources who work in sales say its unclear what his job description is, though he evidently has plenty of time to contribute to Forbes, where he posted 14 articles in July. Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. Head of The Onion, Deadspin sued for sex discrimination - New York Post The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. After two years of mainly working from home, the company wants everyone back in the office four days a week. In late July, more than a month after the womans conversation with Spanfeller (and after the Daily Beast and New York Post published stories about his rocky early days at the company and he became aware of the reporting process for this story about his hiring practices), that same VP was given what management called a promotion, which Spanfeller noted in his responses to Deadspin, saying that she has been promoted to VP Marketing under Bruce Rogers with wider responsibilities., I am at the same level and performing the same duties now as I was before I got this supposed promotion, the VP said. Voter Registration Records Email us. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. No media company does. Then, in early June, former Onion CEO Mike McAvoy, whountil he was separated from the company on July 11had been leading sales across all the sites, told the SVP that Spanfeller had hired two new sales leaders, Flanagan and Thompson. In his email to the staff, Spanfeller described this story as one that had been commissioned by the site, and attempted to paint the reporting process behind it as haphazard and unfair. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. Three and a half hours later, Maidment told us to put the story on ice, but both Spanfeller and Maidment maintain that Spanfeller never explicitly or implicitly directed the story to be killed. It was four days old. That distinction quickly sparked backlash in late 2019, when the staff of Deadspin resigned over the firing of a top editor and the company's mandate that the site stick to covering sports. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. Spanfeller says Pontius accepted the job, but he decided she was not a good fit for this position after Pontius refused to join me in communicating our plans to fire Banikarim. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On I have communicated our timeline concerns to Jim and he understands that development is not an exact science and that goals may not be hit, Knight told Deadspin. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. But as Spanfeller began to implement his vision, that hope was replaced by employee frustration and skepticism over his hiring practices and interference with the companys journalism. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Sources say he was retained to consult on sales and how the department could work more directly with clients, which the now-former employee says was her job. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. A longtime digital media veteran, Spanfeller was an unconventional choice to lead the new Gizmodo Media Group sites (The Daily Beast's CEO, Heather Dietrick, once served as president of the . Why Ketanji Brown Jackson Split With the Courts Liberals in a 54 Decision, the firing of beloved editor Barry Petchesky, According to Great Hill Partners website, increasingly insisted on directing editorial coverage. Jack Crosbie, a former Splinter contractor and co-owner of Discourse, said that traffic declined at Splinter because G/O did not refill lost positions. At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. G/O Media lawsuits: Two former exec allege discrimination - CNN Sean Flanagan, 55, who was hired to lead east coast sales, was also installed over a female senior sales employee, who had been at the company for four years before she left in July. Have a tip we should know? Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Takeaways From Deadspin's Expos of G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller Spanfellers cronies now fill the G/O Media positions of chief financial officer, editorial director, senior VP of marketing, VP of west coast sales, VP of east coast sales, and VP of southern sales. The post was so popular, in fact, that it apparently gained the attention and ire of Spanfeller himself (perhaps partially due to the fact that someone registered Deadspin2.com and set it to redirect to Carmichaels post). There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 20012009. In the culmination of a dayslong struggle to suppress a post that repeatedly referred to its CEO, Jim Spanfeller, as a herb, G/O Media has taken the drastic step of removing the article from its Kinja platform entirely. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. The key journalistic properties descended from . Jim Spanfeller, I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Employees in G/O Media's editorial union urged the company's private-equity owners to replace G/O Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller in a letter Monday, saying a change in leadership was . 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. New York(CNN Business) Two former executives are suing G/O Media, the parent company of sites including Gizmodo, Deadspin and The Onion, alleging discrimination and negligence. Both lawsuits detail discrimination personally faced or witnessed by the plaintiffs from Jim Spanfeller, who became CEO of G/O Media in April after private equity firm Great Hill acquired Gizmodo Media Group. One of the former staffers said that as companies sought to double down on diversity and inclusion during the summer of 2020, the branded content team received incoming requests from companies hoping to fund content for The Root, G/O Media's Black news publication. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. When Jim Spanfeller and a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners took over G/O Mediaformerly Gizmodo Media Groupin April, their stated goal was to make the company profitable. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. . It wasn't Great Hill's first foray into the media business it had previously invested in IGN and sold Ziff Davis but the G/O deal was a tiny one for a firm that describes itself as "targeting investments of $25 million to $500 million.". The tech team managed to execute the move in about a month, but before they had finished, Spanfeller changed course and decided that the developers should build an entirely new video platform and player from scratch, explaining the decision by saying that that was what he did at Forbes, according to employees involved. Its Extremely Revealing. The two former staffers described Spanfeller as a micromanager who insists on approving minor budget items and sitting in on meetings far beneath his level, like editorial audience meetings with each site. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. Spanfeller also said that he did not ask Katie to fire Susie, only to be in the room while I had the conversation about Susies future with the company., Spanfeller ended up firing Banikarim himself, and then, months later, hiring Angela Persaud for the chief talent officer job after a public search. In two cases, women asked for and were promised the opportunity to interview for executive-level positions for which they were qualified, only to see Spanfeller hire one of his former colleagues before they were given a chance to interview. Shortly after Spanfellers email was made public, Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell issued a statement in response to his accusations that the reporting process was unfair: We are in an ongoing reporting process and planning to publish the story when it is ready. During Jim Spanfeller's younger years, he lived in Pennsylvania and recieved his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1952 from the Philladelphia Academy of the Fine Arts. Among the multiple Gawker and/or GMG and/or G/O websites I wrote for was, for a brief stint, Deadspin, which is currently without a staff after every single one of its writers quit en masse following the firing of beloved editor Barry Petchesky, who is another friend of mine. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. What Spanfeller says is normal is, of course, a reflection of his own values, which evidently rank transparency, diversity, and inclusion as secondary concerns to financial success. He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. On July 30, the day after I emailed reporting questions to Spanfeller, Maidment, Rogers, Jesse Knight, and Sean Flanagan, Spanfeller sent a company-wide email under the subject line Reporting on Ourselves; Deadspin Reporting On The Company and Our Executives. In the email, excerpts of which were published by media reporters from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Spanfeller voiced his opinion on how coverage of the company should work: I believe the solution is to have that reporting reviewed by an impartial outside editor a Public Editor, if you will [] and not just for these situations but for any situation where someone within or without the company has issues with our coverage or reporting. The Deadspin takedown covered numerous issues that have arisen since Univisions sale of the company to Great Hill, ranging from accounts of Spanfeller screaming at past employees, to allegations that the new G/O Media boss is on-boarding his old media buddies over highly qualified women who have worked at the company for years, along with numerous other accusations of mismanagement. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. According to multiple sources inside the company, the post even joined the leading posts from official G/O sites on the big board, a large screen in the companys New York headquarters that displays that moments most highly trafficked storiesan unusual feat for a user-generated post. When Rogers was hired less than a week after McAvoy told the SVP that she would be able to interview for the job, she said, she realized that he must have been chosen well before. Endnotes [1] Statement from G/O Media: "Some reports have miscast Jim Spanfeller as a private equity businessman when, in fact, he has spent his entire career in editorial-driven businesses. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. James J. Spanfeller serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President of Electronic Publishing for . When people came in with good ideas they were rejected., A woman who was hired at The Daily Meal after responding to a Craigslist post said she was once asked to write a story about a companys earnings, which she felt she wasnt qualified to write and for which she didnt receive guidance from her editors. Former CEO of http://Forbes.com, Chairman Emeritus, IAB, Sec OPA NYCJoined April 2009 266Following 1,878Followers Tweets Tweets & replies Media Likes Jim Spanfeller's Tweets Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Mar 13, 2020 Good News! She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. . This has led to some protest among employees, as one staffer told Deadspin, It definitely feels like its the old boys club. A second employee told the site, This guy just seems like he doesnt like women.. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. I intend to continue supervising the reporting process, including legal review, and then publish a thorough and fair story, which of course would include responses from people we spoke to. In that 30-minute meeting, the woman told Deadspin, Spanfeller told her that Univision had been a bad owner and that he saw an opportunity to make improvements and turn a profit. It is also worth noting that multiple internal candidates have expressed interest in the position of EIC of the A/V Club. The Onion union declined to comment, but a source with knowledge of the situation disputed that the union demanded promotions, saying its letter demanded action and used the words We ask for the following when addressing promotions. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. The Onion Union, which represents AV Club staffers, told Insider in a statement that it hoped "this period of prosperity creates tangible benefits for all of our members especially those whose jobs are being moved to Los Angeles, one of the most expensive cities in the world.". G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. Deadspin Editor Fired Amid Pushback Over 'Stick to Sports' Memo He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. I was unclear about what she did. "We have billions of dollars available to go out and buy and make this a bigger company, and that would really be our desire," Gaffney said. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. A senior vice president who has worked for what is now G/O Media for four and a half years met with Spanfeller in the companys Chicago office shortly after he purchased the company in April. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. The union said that it wants the money to translate into higher salary minimums, trans-inclusive healthcare, and a focus on talent retention. While cleaning house and bringing in some trusted former colleagues is not entirely uncommon in private-equity acquisitions, Spanfeller filled nearly his entire top layer of management without any public recruitment process; the only woman hired as a department head, head of talent Angela Persaud, was also the only person at that level whose job was posted publicly.

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