It wasnt collaborative.. 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. 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. . 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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. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). 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.. 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). 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. Voting precincts and districts. From a womans perspective, I did feel very belittled. 4. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Legal review is often a lengthy process involving multiple reads, so talking to a lawyer is certainly not an indication that we would publish without completing the reporting process. 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? Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. Well keep fighting for whats right. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. While we were given a 3pm deadline today to respond to dozens of questions, I understand that the folks at Deadspin have already submitted their story for legal review and plan to publish it on Wednesday all without ever seeing any of the responses to the questions that they asked. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. 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. This conversation inspired her to write a post on the personal account she still holds on G/Os publishing platform, Kinja, titled Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb., Pronounced with a hard h, herbs are difficult to define, but typified by the individuals seen in this earlier Carmichael post about herbitude. We could have video analytics today. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. 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. 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. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. 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 . This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. One major conflict arose over whether the company should build a video player in-house or pay for a third-party platform. I am a father of three wonderful woman, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. . These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. They cant even pitch effectively, said another employee who was present. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. This particular set of troubles all started when private equity firm Great Hill Partners purchased GMG and hired Spanfeller, a former Forbes.com CEO, to guide the ship. And Fake. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. Political affiliation. When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. 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. 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. 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. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. 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. 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 fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Where people are registered to vote. Youre not qualified. 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. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. As Spanfeller increasingly insisted on directing editorial coverage in what he believed to be more advertiser-friendly directions, clashes between him and the companys writers and editors have escalated. We may earn a commission from links on this page. 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 other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. As for the content of the survey, Reibstein said it is possible to read it as innocent, a way to attempt to gauge customer satisfaction, as its known in the marketing industry. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Its something that Im working to improve. Mike hired Steve, and Steve hired Lance after conducting a process around each hire. Great Hill Partners vice president Eric Ahlgren and managing partner Chris Gaffney did not respond to Deadspins emailed questions. 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. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. [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. No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. 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. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. 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.". I have stood up for and advocated for my team since the day I started at G/O. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. "[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. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. He also claimed to have hired four women for major roles though, one of these jobs has not been filled yet, as Spanfeller instead claims he plans to give it to a woman. I am a father of three wonderful woman. Successfully sold . It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. (Pontius declined to comment. [7], Spanfeller was named associate publisher and senior vice president of marketing of Playboy Enterprises in April 1989. When asked why he didnt consider the SVP, Spanfeller told Deadspin, I was unaware of her interest in the role and that Mike had made that commitment and Im sorry. 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. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. 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). 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. 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. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 1. Throughout his career he has recieved more than 60 awards for his work from such . When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. 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. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. Then, Thursday night, after Bernie Sanders tweeted in support of Deadspin, supporter collective People for Bernie tweeted the post at its new URL: After which, sometime today, the post disappeared, only to be replaced by this: Its not entirely clear which of Kinjas guidelines were violated, particularly considering that theres no agreed upon definition of what constitutes a herb. Jim characterized that as a misunderstanding, she said. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. I can see why. The role was not posted nor was it communicated to me in time where I would have even been given equal opportunity to be considered, she said. pretty big scoop from me Jim Spanfeller is a herb https://t.co/gZDCs6mfhC. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. Gov. 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. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. Use this information as you see fit. I thought she was going to be great, and it didnt work out by her own assessment., In response to follow-up questions, Spanfeller clarified that there was never a signed offer between Pontius and the company. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. 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. 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. It was four days old. 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. His skin got bright red, she said. The G/O Media union sent the following statement regarding the survey: The GMG Union has made repeated good-faith efforts to cooperate with management in resolving the many outstanding issues currently facing the company, from workplace accessibility to a video player that lacks viable metrics. 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. 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. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. 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.
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