Voter Registration Records Jim Spanfeller - Chief Executive Officer @ G/O Media - Crunchbase But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. Gizmodo Media Staff Enraged at New CEO's 'Insane' Direction Its motivation is simply to publish true and interesting stories, and to make sure the things powerful people would rather stay in the dark end up in the light of day. Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. 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. "From the outset, CEO Jim Spanfeller has worked to undermine a successful site by curtailing its most well-read coverage because it makes him personally uncomfortable," the Gizmodo Media Group . Great Hill Partners and current CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes, bought these sites and the Onion from Univision Communications Inc. in April. 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. 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.. The union said that it wants the money to translate into higher salary minimums, trans-inclusive healthcare, and a focus on talent retention. 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. During those meetings, Maidments ideaswhich included commissioning an editor outside the company to review and approve stories written by about the companywere met with unanimous opposition. I never changed my mind. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. 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Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. Deadspin Editor Fired Amid Pushback Over 'Stick to Sports' Memo Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. 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. Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. I told him I had a few questions Id like to ask him, and asked if he had any availability for a meeting the following day. 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 . 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. Great Hill Partners is a growth equity company committed to building businesses. 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 Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. Since Spanfeller took over G/O Media in April, more than a dozen people have left the company voluntarily, in addition to the 25 people who were laid off. 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. 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. A spokesperson for G/O has yet to respond to a request for clarification, but we will update this post if and when that changes. 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. "There's a fly and he's a swatter, and that's it," the former executive said. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Vice president of sales for the south Lance Johnson, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes (and most recently worked with Bruce Rogers at a company called SITO Mobile). Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. Mr. McAvoy was clear to me on his opinion that he did not think she was the right choice at this time, Spanfeller said. I realized that I wasnt communicating my advocacy for the department or our initiatives to upper management and other departments back to the team clearly enough. Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. 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. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. 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. Cramer finally reveals whether he is pro-Trump or anti-Trump - CNBC . 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. 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. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. 3. She asked McAvoy, then her immediate supervisor, for the opportunity to interview for the position, citing her leadership of the revenue division, her construction of a diverse team, and her renown in the industry. Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. 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. James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Combined with more data-driven metrics like unique views, how long a reader spends on a story, and how many times a story is shared, reader feedback can provide useful information. 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. He credited The Root for its journalism on the Black Lives Matter movement. Multiple sources say that Spanfeller reached out to VP of media operations Brad Klancnik to tell him he was a valuable employee and that the new owners would like him to stay at the company, but female VPs say he did not relay such messages to them. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. Successfully sold . Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. 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. 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. 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. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. Spanfeller told Insider that G/O Media plans to reinvest the profits into the business. Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? G/O Media, owner of Gizmodo and The Onion, will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, CEO Jim Spanfeller says. 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. The confusion stems from a lack of communication. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. 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. . It wasnt collaborative.. And Fake. Sources say the meeting concluded with an agreement that the best course of action would be to explain to Spanfeller why the player would not be finished by August 15. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. tips@mediaite.com, Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. A week after Spanfeller insisted to Variety that 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. 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. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. Throughout his career he has recieved more than 60 awards for his work from such . G/O Media Workers Call on Owners to Replace CEO - WSJ (check all that apply). G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. The anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. Opinion | A clash of values at former Gawker Media sites Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. 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 admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. [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. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. Once it became clear that the sales department was being restructured in Kurt Muellers absence, another female vice president, who had been at the company for four years, asked McAvoy in early June for the opportunity to be considered for an expanded sales role, providing examples to show her success at the company. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. 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. 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. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. It was four days old. 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. (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.) Sign up for notifications from Insider! Jim Spanfeller Biography. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. Traffic has fallen across G/O Media's portfolio over the past two years, which Spanfeller pinned on industry-wide struggles to generate audience plus the loss of Deadspin and Splinter. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. 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 post, published Tuesday evening, proved wildly popular on Twitter. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. Voting precincts and districts. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. That the story has been submitted for legal review without the benefit of our responses leads me to the conclusion that the piece is already fully written and that our responses to questions are mere window dressing. 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. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller says the company is profitable and ready Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. In an emailed statement to Deadspin, Spanfeller claimed that he did not make the hires, but admitted to making professional introductions for some of these new employees. 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. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. This Is How Things Work Now At G/O Media - Deadspin 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. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn 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. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . Ex-Deadspin EIC Jim Rich resigns in latest turmoil at G/O Media 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. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Spanfeller Media Group - Wikipedia ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. 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! [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. 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. 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 fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? 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. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. In reality, this story started with a tip the site received about Spanfellers hiring practices, and grew from there thanks to sources accounts. 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. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. Additionally, as you are reporting here, there are numerous outstanding people, both men and women who have worked for me on more than one occasion., By July, Spanfellers third full month at the company, questions about Spanfellers commitment to his journalists editorial independence began to dominate conversation in the office. Jim Spanfeller . 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. 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. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. (Pontius left the company.) That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. 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. 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 . Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience?, My management was straight-up scared of him, said a staffer who worked at the site for two years and had responsibilities on both the editorial and marketing sides of the company. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. 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. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Dead and spun: a story in three meetings - Columbia Journalism Review