Spanfeller Media Group - Wikipedia They cant even pitch effectively, said another employee who was present. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! 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. Youre not qualified. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. No media company does. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. 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. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. 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. 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). One major conflict arose over whether the company should build a video player in-house or pay for a third-party platform. pretty big scoop from me Jim Spanfeller is a herb https://t.co/gZDCs6mfhC. The confusion stems from a lack of communication. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. Where people are registered to vote. 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. 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. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. 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 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. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. 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. (Spanfeller says this is inaccurate and that he did consider other candidates for the editorial director role, but Paul quickly rose to the top after he expressed an interest in the position.) Three of the men Spanfeller hired were installed over successful women who had been at the company for years. , 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 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. 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.
Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. Views. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Its something that Im working to improve. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. 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. I can see why.
Cramer finally reveals whether he is pro-Trump or anti-Trump - CNBC When she tried to edit the post, she was greeted by the following image: Attempts to create a new post were similarly thwarted. In reality, this story started with a tip the site received about Spanfellers hiring practices, and grew from there thanks to sources accounts. 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. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. According to Great Hill Partners website, Spanfeller has led comparable media platforms and positioned them for successful strategic exit, which probably means something to someone, somewhere, but Spanfeller is perhaps best known for dramatically increasing Forbes.coms focus on digital advertising (Spanfeller also previously served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau). I think it makes him a bad role model for the rest of his team.. 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. 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. Political affiliation. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. Never mind the flood of negative stories about staff blowback over the company's editorial direction. 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. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. 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. []. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. In his email to the staff, Spanfeller described this story as one that had been commissioned by the site, and attempted to paint the reporting process behind it as haphazard and unfair. 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. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. The detection of possible errors in a person's voter record as well as instructions on how to update it.
Ex-Deadspin EIC Jim Rich resigns in latest turmoil at G/O Media 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.
Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied Oberlander actually left last week. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. And Fake. Computing. 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. Sign up for notifications from Insider! I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. 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. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. 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. In late July, more than a month after the womans conversation with Spanfeller (and after the Daily Beast and New York Post published stories about his rocky early days at the company and he became aware of the reporting process for this story about his hiring practices), that same VP was given what management called a promotion, which Spanfeller noted in his responses to Deadspin, saying that she has been promoted to VP Marketing under Bruce Rogers with wider responsibilities., I am at the same level and performing the same duties now as I was before I got this supposed promotion, the VP said. 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. But as Spanfeller began to implement his vision, that hope was replaced by employee frustration and skepticism over his hiring practices and interference with the companys journalism. James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. G/O Media, owner of Gizmodo and The Onion, will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, CEO Jim Spanfeller says. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. 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. [1] 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. 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.
This Is How Things Work Now At G/O Media - Deadspin 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.
Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post According to his LinkedIn, Thompson is the founder of Mediacentric Inc., a multi-media representation company., A man was hired with my same title [vice president for west coast sales] to be my boss, the VP told Deadspin. Mad Money Twitter - Jim . So put this piece on ice.
G/O Media Workers Call on Owners to Replace CEO - WSJ 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. He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". "There's a fly and he's a swatter, and that's it," the former executive said. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. Jim 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. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12.
Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn Unlike private equity investors who financially engineer acquisitions, burdening companies they buy with debt and massive . Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. I never changed my mind. 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. 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. Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION are core to our culture, and we expect all staff to advance and promote that. Heartened, the SVP emailed Spanfeller to remind him of their meeting in April and express her hope that women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBTQ would be considered as he hired his leadership team, and to say that she looked forward to discussing her role in the organization. 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. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). 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.". 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. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. "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. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. The Daily Meal Founder G/O Media Chief Executive Officer Board and Advisor Roles Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 3 Number of Past Board & Advisor Roles 2 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 Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic.
Takeaways From Deadspin's Expos of G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller Spanfeller told Insider that G/O Media plans to reinvest the profits into the business. 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. "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. 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. 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. 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. 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 . 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. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer?
Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. "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 . 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 next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. Sources say that on the tech side of the company, Spanfeller has taken to micromanaging various aspects of developers work, holding meetings to ask what each one is working on, demanding detailed accounts of how they spend their working days, and mandating various projects based on his work at Forbes in the mid-2000s. Views. Amid the chaos, someone edited Spanfeller's Wikipedia entry to read, "Jim Spanfeller is a fart-faced fascist best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009." (That language has since . She said Spanfeller didnt have many questions for her, describing him as apathetic. Spanfeller seemed not to recall this interaction, telling Deadspin that the sales team was not covering direct clients.. Never mind that employees called for his resignation last year. It was four days old. 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. As for why that move was never announced, Spanfeller told Deadspin he believed Mike McAvoy would announce Rogers arrival, even though Spanfeller hired Rogers and he has announced other hires across the company since taking over.
Back to the Office, But Only to Picket - Curbed 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. Spanfeller says Pontius accepted the job, but he decided she was not a good fit for this position after Pontius refused to join me in communicating our plans to fire Banikarim. (Pontius left the company.) They are parti pris, which is why the overwhelming majority do not do so and many will not even report on rivals for the same reason.
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller: Company Will Be Profitable by - Insider Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . Or to keep it anonymous, click here.
Dead and spun: a story in three meetings - Columbia Journalism Review Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. After two years of mainly working from home, the company wants everyone back in the office four days a week. 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. Political party affiliation trends based on location. 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. I was disappointed. 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. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? In early April, Great Hill Partners, a private-equity firm, acquired Gizmodo Media Groupa collection of sites, formed from the assets of the old Gawker, that included Jezebel, Lifehacker, and Deadspinas well as The Onion, a satirical news site, reportedly at a fire-sale price.The company, renamed G/O Media, installed Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes.com, Playboy, and Ziff Davis, as CEO. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. Flanagan volunteered to go first, and what followed wasnt overwhelmingly inspiring, as one sales employee who was at the meeting put it: Flanagan read word for word what was on the slides, two people present confirmed. When Rogers was hired less than a week after McAvoy told the SVP that she would be able to interview for the job, she said, she realized that he must have been chosen well before.
Jim Spanfeller Biography & Works of Art | Qart.com Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media.
The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review Laura M. Browning and Caitlin PenzeyMoog, the A.V. A G/O Media spokesperson said the company plans to grow the 174-person editorial headcount to 200 by the end of the first quarter next year. 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. "[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 anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. These men, and others who now hold C-suite positions at the company, were each hired without a public recruitment process, and several were installed over high-ranking women who had been successfully performing those jobs at the company for years. We may earn a commission from links on this page. 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 . LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. The key journalistic properties descended from . These actions are clearly management attempting to target, and even intimidate, staff into changing their editorial stance in spite of our contract-protected independence, especially as it comes on the heels of managements repeated attempts to kill this story as it was being reported about the company. Asked about the contract, Spanfeller responded, I firmly believe in editorial integrity. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . "There's been a lot of pain in this, but it's worth it to get properties that are as great as these properties are," Spanfeller said of G/O's 11 publications, which include Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion, Lifehacker, The Root, and Kotaku. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. Spanfeller said he would go into negotiations "with an open mind and good faith," but a former executive at the company predicted conflict at the negotiating table between the union and the CEO, given their view of Spanfeller's heavy-handed leadership style. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. [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.
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