Jim Spanfeller Analyzes Public Policy - Big Think He did not answer a question about whether he was aware that a female VP was already leading west coast sales or that he installed a man (who also carries a VP title) above her. Ex-Deadspin EIC Jim Rich resigns in latest turmoil at G/O Media Spanfeller Media Group - Wikipedia Greenwell told Maidment she was unwilling to shut down an ongoing reporting process in response to management demands, and Maidment continued to make his argument against the idea of reporting on G/O Mediaa hallmark of the company since its earliest days, as well as a tradition at other major publicationsin several meetings with the editors and writers he oversees. "People are scared of him. Voter Registration Records "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb": The rise and fall of a blog post. [] While it is what we did at Forbes that has nothing to do with the reason to do it here. Successfully sold . All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. 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. Without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company., You also had no interest in meeting the only woman on the revenue leadership team who is an SVP who has been successful., As the only woman on the previous revenue leadership team, I started to wonder if women were being considered for leadership roles., 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., The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey., Chief financial officer Tom Callahan, who worked at Forbes while Spanfeller worked there. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. McAvoy told her she would be able to interview for a bigger role, she said, only to follow up a few weeks later and say that Rogers had been hired. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. But Spanfellers expectation that the process would be done in the next week or so shocked the tech team. My territory has been cut in half. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. Two other major jobs Spanfeller gave to women include his new head of talent and deputy counsel, which were both outside hires; he did give a promotion to one woman, who he made deputy editorial director. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. Cramer finally reveals whether he is pro-Trump or anti-Trump - CNBC Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied 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. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." Have a tip or story idea? Spanfeller said that he wasnt preventing, just delaying analytics from being implemented, on the grounds that its not particularly useful information at the moment. (The day after Deadspin contacted Spanfeller for comment, the tech team was given the green light to roll out video analytics. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. The confusion stems from a lack of communication. I was disappointed. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. 4. In conversations with Deadspin, more than 20 employees from across the business, tech, and editorial departments of G/O Media expressed frustration with Spanfellers approach to hiring and his new executives lack of knowledge about the company combined with their seeming unwillingness or inability to get up to speed. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. Head of The Onion, Deadspin sued for sex discrimination - New York Post It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. 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. "[17], "Great Hill Partners Agrees to Acquire Gizmodo Media Group", "Great Hill Partners Acquires Gizmodo Media Group", "President & CEO, Jim Spanfeller Named as IAB Chairman", "Alumni Album: Helping Us Connect to the Web", "Advertising; 4 Young Executives On Move at Newsweek", "Playboy Hires 2 New Execs; Title of Publisher Goes to 1", "New Gizmodo boss Jim Spanfeller is an old school digital media vet", "After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit", "Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On", "The Media-Sensational Rise and Fall of "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb", "GMG Union votes no confidence in G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jim_Spanfeller&oldid=1074755870, This page was last edited on 2 March 2022, at 00:52. After Gawker's high-profile legal battle with Hulk Hogan, Univision in 2016 purchased its other media properties out of bankruptcy for $135 million, but struggled and sold the assets, including add-ons like The Onion, to Great Hill Partners in 2019. Back to the Office, But Only to Picket - Curbed [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. As traffic dipped and employees headed for the exits, staffers at the company wrote a letter to Great Hill asking that Spanfeller be replaced as CEO. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. These two highly talented HR executives then met with a number of people around our company including representatives of the unions., When asked why Spanfeller didnt follow this thorough search process before filling seven key positions with his former coworkers, he blamed his hiring practices on the financial shape of the company. Just two weeks after Spanfeller and Great Hill acquired the company, and less than a week after he said in an interview with Variety that he didnt expect any layoffs, Spanfeller fired 25 people across the 400-person company, including Susie Banikarim, GMGs widely respected editorial director, and the only person of color on the executive leadership team at the time. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. I think the general sentiment coming out of that meeting, at least for some of the senior sales people, was like, these guys are going to lead our sales team? [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. Maidment never responded to my questions directly; the first time I saw his answers was when they were included in Spanfellers company-wide email, but he had this to say about his role in the newsroom: I have always shielded the editorial teams I have managed from commercial or business-side interference in what they write, which to my mind is the essence of editorial integrity. Views. Political affiliation. Top Women at the Company Expressed Interest in Filling Executive Roles and Were Promised Interview Opportunities Prior to Spanfeller Hiring His Friends, Two G/O Media employees Deadspin spoke to, who are women who have an experienced track record with the company, say Spanfeller promised to give them a chance to interview for upper-level roles. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages 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. During an internal sales summit meeting in New York on June 19, sales execs practiced pitching G/O Medias general presentation, a deck of about 15 slides that tells clients why they should do business with the company. He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. Everything theyve done in reaction to it is the herbiest shit I could possibly imagine. [2], In 2019, G/O Media's sports blog Deadspin received media attention when all of its writers and editors resigned after an edict given by upper management to "stick to sports". "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. 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. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. Page 1 of 9,554,641. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. When I followed up about the meeting the next day with Spanfeller, I was told it was canceled. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 20 Employees Complained to Deadspin About Spanfellers Management, After interviewing nearly two dozen employees, Deadspin found that 20 people who work for G/O Media expressed frustration with Spanfellers approach to hiring and his new executives lack of knowledge about the company combined with their seeming unwillingness or inability to get up to speed.. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. "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. That evening, the woman received an email from McAvoy telling her that the SVP of marketing job had been filled with someone who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. 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Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post In addition to clichs like we are ambitious and be passionate and have fun, the fifth value on the list said, We will be at our best when we embrace many different perspectives and experiences. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. Oberlander actually left last week. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. The SVP shared her teams revenue goals and their success in meeting those goals, staying focused on numbers and her teams value because she knew her work would be key to profit margins. Most recently, after the latest edict that Deadspin stick to sports, its writers revolted, and Spanfeller retaliated by firing the top-ranking employee, Petchesky (Deadspins latest editor-in-chief, Megan Greenwell quit in August for many of the reasons described above). She said Spanfeller told her that he was unaware of what she did at the company, and that she replied: That doesnt help, because that says you not only didnt know what I did, but you also had no interest in meeting the only woman on the revenue leadership team who is an SVP who has been successful, according to meeting her revenue and finance goals. She said the conversation ended with Spanfeller saying, Im sorry, I dont know what else you want me to say., Spanfeller confirmed the womans account to Deadspin. It's a culture of fear," said the first former employee, who added that staffers sometimes likened meetings with Spanfeller to the "boar on the floor" scene in HBO's "Succession," where media mogul Logan Roy orders his underlings to crawl and oink like pigs. Former Daily News Editor in Chief Is Tapped to Run Deadspin Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 2. No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. 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. Asked about the former employees accounts, Spanfeller said he has no idea what this refers to and it is not my recollection of working at The Daily Meal, adding that he doesnt recall screaming at anyone. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Deadspin Editor Fired Amid Pushback Over 'Stick to Sports' Memo She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. Use this information as you see fit. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. Below are some of the biggest revelations outlined in Deadspins roughly 7,000 word report on their parent company and its new management, which they spoke to nearly two dozen G/O Media employees for. 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. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. In this specific case, I have committed to the current story being fully reported and submitted for external review and, if it passes that review, it will be published. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. A source said Spanfeller told editors-in-chief of the companys websites that he had chosen Maidment, 68, for the job before the sale was completed and did not interview other candidates, including Banikarim. 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. I hold myself to a high regard and ensuring that Im respectful to others and create a community of camaraderie, hire for diversity, and that there is a work life balance, she told Deadspin. Gizmodo Media Staff Enraged at New CEO's 'Insane' Direction It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. G/O Media executives have discussed potential deal targets in the past, including Genius, The Hill, and HuffPost, according to two people familiar with the matter. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. A voter's representatives in government. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. 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 . The VP, who said she now reports to Thompson, said all of her previous reviews from her managers have exceeded expectations, and that she was able to more than double revenue for my region in less than a year. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. G/O Media sites generated about 45.7 million unique visitors in October, according to Comscore, down from 47.8 million in October 2020 and 101.6 million in October 2019, right before the Deadspin exodus. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Club, and Splinter, was purchased by the firm in April, along with the satirical news site The Onion, which led to a massive shift in the companys culture and considerable turnover in the top ranks or, as one G/O Media employee put it, Spanfeller has brought in a bunch of white dudes to change the company. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. The other is still in college.. The post, published Tuesday evening, proved wildly popular on Twitter. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. "We remain optimistic that our labor will be taken into consideration as this period of financial promise collides with a time that has been particularly rough on morale," the Onion Union statement said. 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! Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. G/O Media, owner of Gizmodo and The Onion, will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, CEO Jim Spanfeller says. John Taggart for The Washington Post via Getty Images, NOW WATCH: WATCH: How advertisers can navigate the death of third-party cookies, according to execs from Mars Petcare, R/GA, The Washington Post, and The Trade Desk, Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. In addition to poor planning and communication around the video player, multiple sources say Spanfeller wouldnt allow the tech team to implement video tracking analytics on JW Player, so no one had any idea how many views videos were getting. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. 3. Views. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. , in respect of a candidate, means the name of the political party that has endorsed him or her or the word "independent", as the case may be, included in the nomination paper in accordance with subparagraph 66 (1) (a) (v). Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. The takeover of G/O Media, previosuly known as Gizmodo Media Group and Gawker Media, by former Forbes executive Jim Spanfellercontinues to throttle downhill, as one of the companys news sites, Deadspin, published a scathing expos on Friday detailing a litany of problems employees have faced since investment firm Great Hill purchased Gizmodo and placed Spanfeller in control. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. Takeaways From Deadspin's Expos of G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. Computing. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. Spanfeller, a man who is regularly and perhaps euphemistically referred to in press accounts as a digital media veteran, has so far hired a slew of his former colleagues at Forbes.comwhere he was CEO from 2001 to 2009and Playboywhere he was a senior vice president from 1989 to 1993. Text. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records He would stop into peoples offices with the doors open and scream at them, so everyone knew what was going on., A fourth source, a former senior staff member at The Daily Meal who worked with Spanfeller, confirmed his temper issues and the dysfunctional nature of the workplace. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. The VP had a call with McAvoy and Spanfeller to discuss the process, asking Spanfeller why he hadnt even reached out to her about the position. While Carmichael was on a plane to Paris, I discovered that G/O had changed her accounts URL from emma.kinja.com to lajskhclsahkchkad.kinja.com, while going to emma.kinja.com now redirects to the new URL, at the time of the change, it simply showed a broken page. The rigorous and thorough reporting, editing, and legal review process that Greenwell promised to oversee has since been completed, which is why you are reading this story now. Deadspin cited an account from a former writer at The Daily Meal, a food and beverage site that Spanfeller founded in 2015, who claims her former boss once started screaming at her because she voiced concerns about writing a story on the websites earning figures, which she felt she was not qualified for. Jim Spanfeller . When asked if she stood by the content of the since-disappeared post, Carmichael remained steadfast: I did really careful, thorough research, and the evidence is there.