Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. Youre not qualified. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. [14] A subsequent Deadspin post mocked Spanfeller as a "herb"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. 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. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. 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. I was going on the input I had been given by Mike McAvoy that he had discussed the position with her and laid out why she was not ready for the larger role. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. In its brief life, the postwritten by Emma Carmichael, a former editor at a former version of the companywas viewed nearly 100,000 times and was tweeted out by the official People for Bernie Twitter account. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." Email us. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. "[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. The fourth known instance of Spanfeller overlooking a woman at the company in favor of a white male former colleague also happened on the sales team. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. , 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). I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. Where people are registered to vote. Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma. Jim Spanfeller, In the midst of the fallout, former Deadspin, Gawker, and Jezebel editor Emma Carmichael had a spirited discussion with [former Jezebel writer] Clio Chang on the overwhelming herbishness of Jim Spanfeller, she told me over the phone. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. 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. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. But Spanfeller said that he wants G/O Media to keep the voice and mission that made Gawker Media sites singular in the digital media industry. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. [1] And as the only woman on the previous revenue leadership team, I started to wonder if women were being considered for leadership roles. Indeed, Spanfeller told Deadspin that he first contacted Rogers about the job on June 11. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. []. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. 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. Have a tip we should know? 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. When asked by Deadspin why he wouldnt name an interim editor while that search took place in order to stabilize the site and ensure that the people filling in were properly compensated for their work, Spanfeller said that the Onion union demanded that we immediately promote two people into those roles. Spanfellers pushed back against these internal criticisms of his questionably ethical hiring process and management style by blaming G/O Media for losing money too fast. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. 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. 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. . 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. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. In April, the tech team was told to move the companys video operations off of MCP, which Univision paid for to host video content, and onto JW Player, a cheaper video system. Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. In turn, Spanfeller hired a number of his old media friends and former colleagues from Forbes, Playboy, and other outlets to fill top roles at G/O Media, while also failing to make public job postings for many of these roles. Well keep fighting for whats right. Stay up to date with what you want to know. According to sources familiar with the situation, the tech team was instructed by Knight, who was directed by Spanfeller, to push out the survey without consent from anyone in editorial. 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. 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. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. Whenever a publication shuts down, as has happened more and more over the last few years, it undergoes a public eulogizing by its employees, the friends of its employees, the people who wanted to work there, and most importantly the readers, whose tributes are . These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Spanfeller, who became head of the digital media company when GMG was purchased by private equity firm Great Hill Partners, told staff that he expected the site's direct advertising to "take the. The only person that I was aware of that was calling directly on clients was an SVP at The Onion and that was to sell creative services, he said. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. 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. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. A week after Spanfeller insisted to Varietythat he did not plan to cut our way to growth, the CEO fired 25 employees, including in top positions, such as axing former Gizmodo Media Group editorial director Susie Banikarim. Soon after Flanagan started, other members of the sales team began to question his ability to do the job he was hired forspecifically, his ability to represent the websites and the company mission. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. 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 denies this claim.). 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. That said, I and the management team received a list of questions from the reporter working this story for Deadspin and those questions left me greatly concerned about the objectivity and core intentions of this piece. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. Announcing Persauds hire on July 10, Spanfeller wrote this of the process: After a very fulsome search where we interviewed dozens of qualified candidates we identified two finalists. 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. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. The employees, nearly all of whom requested anonymity because of fears of retaliation from company management, are angered by a lack of communication regarding company goals, seeming disregard for promoting diversity within the top ranks of the company, and by repeated and egregious interference with editorial procedures. [12], Spanfeller took over as CEO of G/O Media when Great Hill Partners purchased the company, formerly known as Gizmodo Media Group, and The Onion from Univision on April 8, 2019, and combined the companies. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, in April Spanfeller offered the job of head of talent to Katie Pontius, who until recently was the chief of staff for The Onion, Inc. 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. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. Jim Rich, the former Daily News editor charged with bringing Deadspin back to life following a mass staff exodus, has resigned after just 18 months on the job, The Post has learned. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. In the email, Spanfeller said he was "greatly concerned about the objectivity and core intentions of this piece," and questioned the editorial standards of Deadspin's editors. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. 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. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. I never changed my mind. Throughout his career he has recieved more than 60 awards for his work from such . Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. Three and a half hours later, Maidment sent an email to Greenwell and me with the subject line, Reporting on ourselves. The body of the message read: This is a tradition that makes no sense. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. The union said that it wants the money to translate into higher salary minimums, trans-inclusive healthcare, and a focus on talent retention. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. Great Hill Partners and current CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes, bought these sites and the Onion from Univision Communications Inc. in April. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the companys finances, we can take even more time and be more deliberate in our hiring, which the SVP Talent is already doing.. According to Dave Reibstein, past chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association and a professor of marketing at University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business (where he teaches a course on market research), there are several problems with the survey. Im sorry that Mike didnt more clearly convey the information to me., McAvoy said, Jim has a different recollection of the facts., The SVP said she told Spanfeller that she wasnt the only person who noticed this pattern of hiring his former colleagues over women at the company, and that he should be prepared to address it. In the months that followed, without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller, 62, hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company. Though neither Spanfeller nor Knight provided the team a hard deadline, they made clear that they wanted the task, which should have taken months, completed in a matter of weeks. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. And he made sure to make it clear that I just didnt get it in his mind that I just didnt get this whole digital thing, she said. 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. And I didnt know what Sean was doing. 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. Multiple employees on the tech team say the chief technology officer, Jesse Knight, has repeatedly shown himself unable or unwilling to stand up to Spanfeller and advocate for his team and best practice standards. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. 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. 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! 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. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. UPDATE: This article has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to former G/O Media Lynn Oberlander leaving her job shortly after the companys latest round of layoffs. 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. In an email read to Deadspin, McAvoy agreed that she was qualified for the role and said he would talk with Spanfeller to ensure she was interviewed for the new opportunity, which had not been posted publicly. Never mind that employees called for his resignation last year. 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). (Though the source spoke in great detail about her experience, she requested her name not be used because she didnt want it to affect her future employment opportunities.) Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. Mr. McAvoy was clear to me on his opinion that he did not think she was the right choice at this time, Spanfeller said. Text. In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. 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. It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. One theory was that Spanfeller thought implementing analytics would take developer resources away from building the new video platform and player, though employees said implementing analytics is a relatively easy fix. 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. This former staffer said the team wished to add Black creatives to help create more representative branded content to meet the demand, but it was not given additional resources. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? The other is still in college.. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. All rights reserved. Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. "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. Spanfeller did offer to promote one female employee, former chief of staff for The Onion Katie Pontius, and make her the companys head of talent, but the position fell through after he demanded that she fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarimas her first management move, which Pontius refused, according to sources who spoke to Deadspin. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. I first emailed Spanfeller on June 24, early in my reporting process, telling him that I was working on a story about the new hires hed brought to G/O Media in his first few months. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. That management did not respond to our request for an explanation is only another of the many ways the workers at GMG have been ignored and put on the back burner in the name of a profitability mirage that is clearly more attractive to the big decision-makers than a functioning workplace. Its Extremely Revealing. 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. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. [6] Just under two years later, Spanfeller was replaced as publisher by Scott Kauffmann and became the national sales manager of Newsweek magazine in 1986. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. 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 . No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. I was unclear about what she did. This response, which Spanfeller emailed out along with the questions to and answers from every other executive to the entire company as an attempt to undermine this story, prompted this response from a third sales employee. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. (Pontius left the company.) G/O Media, the newly formed company comprised of the assets of the former Gizmodo Media, will lay off 25 employees, according to a memo that company CEO Jim Spanfeller sent to staffers on Tuesday. In one case, sources say Spanfeller did offer to promote a woman to run human resources, but on the condition she fire another woman at the company as her first order of business. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? 2. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. 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. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! 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. Emma Carmichael is a friend of mine, and we both worked at Gawker Media and, as it was later named after being purchased by Univision, Gizmodo Media Group, or GMG. The private equity firm was able to snap up the deal for only about $25 million, according to a person with direct knowledge of the figure. They cant even pitch effectively, said another employee who was present. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. 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. A voter's representatives in government. Several high-ranking employees have left the company over the past three months, departments have been stretched thin, and those who remain say that Spanfellers micromanaging and inappropriate interference has hamstrung their ability to effectively do their jobs. The four women who Spanfeller counts as major hires include two he hired (head of talent and deputy counsel); one he promoted from within to executive managing editor; and a yet-to-be-filled position he says he plans to offer to a woman. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. [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. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. I told Mike, verbally and in writing, that I would be interested in taking on new responsibilities and opportunities within the organization and I would like to interview for whatever position would be a part of that, she told Deadspin. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . 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. We could have video analytics today.
jim spanfeller political affiliation
