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. Spanfeller accused writers and editors of acting in bad faith based on a list of questions submitted to him before publication and the fact that a draft of the article had been sent for legal. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. 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 read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. New York City. 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. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. Page 1 of 9,554,641. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. 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. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. Elsewhere in the company, G/O Media has pushed staffers at its site the AV Club to relocate to Los Angeles from Chicago, according to a recent report in Gawker, which is now owned by Bustle Digital Group. "People are scared of him. Still, tensions between management and staff are high at the company as it prepares to enter negotiations with the G/O Media editorial union, one of the two unions representing editorial workers at the company. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. 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. 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. 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. Made up mostly of the former Gawker Media sites, G/O Media has been in a near constant state of turmoil for the past few years. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. G/O Media, the company which ran Deadspin, was acquired by the private equity group Great Hill Partners, which installed Spanfeller as CEO and gave him one mission: Make them richer. 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. 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. 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. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. 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. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. 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. When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. Successfully sold . Great Hill Partners did not disclose the financial terms of the private, all equity transaction but stated in a press release that Spanfeller is an investor. According to multiple sources inside the company, the post even joined the leading posts from official G/O sites on the big board, a large screen in the companys New York headquarters that displays that moments most highly trafficked storiesan unusual feat for a user-generated post. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. 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. No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. Jim Spanfeller Biography. 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. I am and will continue to be a very strong advocate for my team.. I think it makes him a bad role model for the rest of his team.. 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. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. 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. Gaffney said the firm was prepared to hold onto the investment for a decade or more and that Spanfeller, a former Forbes and Playboy executive, does not have a time frame for preparing the company for a sale. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. Youre not qualified. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . Neither Sean nor Jim ever reached out to ask, Hey, what are you doing, how are you doing it, how is it working? There was never a conversation about my role, she told Deadspin. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Vice president for west coast sales Steve Thompson, who worked with Spanfeller at, Vice president for east coast sales Sean Flanagan, who worked with Spanfeller at. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. 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. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. 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. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. 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. Stay up to date with what you want to know. I am a father of three wonderful woman. (check all that apply). "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. From a womans perspective, I did feel very belittled. Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. 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 described the situation differently. 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. 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. 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. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. 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. [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. 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. 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 said he asked for the survey; Rogers said he wrote it; and editorial director Paul Maidment said he didnt approve it, but he told Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell that he did not attempt to stop it from running on the site when he was filled in shortly before it was scheduled to go up. 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. No media company does. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. 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! [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). It was four days old. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. That is absurd. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. Have a tip we should know? 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. 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. 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. 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. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. Then, in early June, former Onion CEO Mike McAvoy, whountil he was separated from the company on July 11had been leading sales across all the sites, told the SVP that Spanfeller had hired two new sales leaders, Flanagan and Thompson. But Spanfellers expectation that the process would be done in the next week or so shocked the tech team. [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. 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 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. 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. One of the former staffers said that as companies sought to double down on diversity and inclusion during the summer of 2020, the branded content team received incoming requests from companies hoping to fund content for The Root, G/O Media's Black news publication. 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 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. Well keep fighting for whats right. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. (Pontius declined to comment. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. For the life of me, I am not sure how you can have a legal review without a complete story and I cannot imagine how you can consider your work to be objective without reviewing the answers to the questions that you have asked. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 20 Employees Complained to Deadspin About Spanfellers Management, After interviewing nearly two dozen employees, Deadspin found that 20 people who work for G/O Media expressed frustration with Spanfellers approach to hiring and his new executives lack of knowledge about the company combined with their seeming unwillingness or inability to get up to speed.. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. 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. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. [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. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. Have a tip or story idea? (G/O Medias Collective Bargaining Agreement contains a clause that explicitly states that editorial decisions can only be made by editorial staff members, which Spanfeller is not. While G/O Media has often placed importance on diversity among their staff and in their coverage, these executive-level jobs went to white males. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . 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. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. 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. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? , 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). A longtime digital media veteran, Spanfeller was an unconventional choice to lead the new Gizmodo Media Group sites (The Daily Beast's CEO, Heather Dietrick, once served as president of the . 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. 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. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. 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. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. 1. 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 admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. 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. 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. 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. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". 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. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. (Pontius left the company.) Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). 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. Great Hill Partners and current CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes, bought these sites and the Onion from Univision Communications Inc. in April. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. He credited The Root for its journalism on the Black Lives Matter movement. 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 think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. All rights reserved. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. (Deadspin reached out to 10 former Spanfeller employees at The Daily Meal; four consented to be interviewed, though all declined to be named because they fear retribution from Spanfeller or their current companies.) 4. 2. 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. McAvoy described the SVP of marketing job as a combination of sales strategy, account management, and managing creative teamsall responsibilities that fell under the SVPs purview. Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. My territory has been cut in half. Over the last few weeks, during their attempts to hinder or prevent the publication of this story, Maidment and Spanfeller invoked concerns about Deadspins credibility in covering G/O Media. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Gov. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. 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. 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. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. 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. Email us. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. [2], In 2019, G/O Media's sports blog Deadspin received media attention when all of its writers and editors resigned after an edict given by upper management to "stick to sports". The CEO alleged. 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. Shortly after Spanfellers email was made public, Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell issued a statement in response to his accusations that the reporting process was unfair: We are in an ongoing reporting process and planning to publish the story when it is ready. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. 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. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. 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. Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. Everything theyve done in reaction to it is the herbiest shit I could possibly imagine. Jim Spanfeller the beleaguered boss of G/O Media, which owns The Onion and Deadspin is being sued by two former executives who claim in separate lawsuits that he discriminated against . He would stop into peoples offices with the doors open and scream at them, so everyone knew what was going on., 5. 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). I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. [14] A subsequent Deadspin post mocked Spanfeller as a "herb"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. 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. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . Jim Spanfeller . 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. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values.