[1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. The takeover of G/O Media, previosuly known as Gizmodo Media Group and Gawker Media, by former Forbes executive Jim Spanfellercontinues to throttle downhill, as one of the companys news sites, Deadspin, published a scathing expos on Friday detailing a litany of problems employees have faced since investment firm Great Hill purchased Gizmodo and placed Spanfeller in control. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 20012009. 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. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? Cramer finally reveals whether he is pro-Trump or anti-Trump - CNBC 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 - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. New York City. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. 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. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. The confusion stems from a lack of communication. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. About their hires, he wrote, I introduced Steve and Lance to Mike McAvoy, but I did not make the hires. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. 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. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. 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. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? 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 . 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. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. 4 Dumb Ways Your Favorite Sites Are Dying | Cracked.com "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". 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. 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. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records 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. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. 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. 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. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller says the company is profitable and ready 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. G/O Media, the newly formed company comprised of the assets of the former Gizmodo Media, will lay off 25 employees, according to a memo that company CEO Jim Spanfeller sent to staffers on Tuesday. In 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. (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.) I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. 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. 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 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. [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. 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. 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. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. 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. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? 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. While these high-ranking women were being overlooked and bypassed, Spanfeller evidently was concerned about retaining at least one other VP on the sales side. 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. 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. Greenwell told Maidment she was unwilling to shut down an ongoing reporting process in response to management demands, and Maidment continued to make his argument against the idea of reporting on G/O Mediaa hallmark of the company since its earliest days, as well as a tradition at other major publicationsin several meetings with the editors and writers he oversees. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. 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. pretty big scoop from me Jim Spanfeller is a herb https://t.co/gZDCs6mfhC. 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. 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. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. In addition to the removal of the post itself, Carmichael also discovered that shes now unable to use her personal Kinja account at all. 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. 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. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? 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.. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. Deadspin Editor Fired Amid Pushback Over 'Stick to Sports' Memo 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. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. 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. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." 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. This Is How Things Work Now At G/O Media - Deadspin 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. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. Youre not qualified. 1. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. 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 think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". 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. Gov. 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. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. 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. Never mind the flood of negative stories about staff blowback over the company's editorial direction. 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. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. If I had known, I would have been happy to interview her and consider her for the role., On June 20, the next time Spanfeller was in Chicago, the SVP met with him to ask why she had been overlooked. (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. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. 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. [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.
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