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Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. 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. 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 sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. 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. After two years of mainly working from home, the company wants everyone back in the office four days a week. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. 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. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Asked about the contract, Spanfeller responded, I firmly believe in editorial integrity. 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. 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. View details on more than 95 Million registered voters across the United States. The two former staffers described Spanfeller as a micromanager who insists on approving minor budget items and sitting in on meetings far beneath his level, like editorial audience meetings with each site. "[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. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. A week after Spanfeller insisted to Variety that he did "not plan to cut our way to growth," the CEO fired 25 employees, including in top positions, such as axing former Gizmodo Media Group. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. The other is still in college.. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. 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. 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. The four women who Spanfeller counts as major hires include two he hired (head of talent and deputy counsel); one he promoted from within to executive managing editor; and a yet-to-be-filled position he says he plans to offer to a woman. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. I told Mike, verbally and in writing, that I would be interested in taking on new responsibilities and opportunities within the organization and I would like to interview for whatever position would be a part of that, she told Deadspin. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. The employees, nearly all of whom requested anonymity because of fears of retaliation from company management, are angered by a lack of communication regarding company goals, seeming disregard for promoting diversity within the top ranks of the company, and by repeated and egregious interference with editorial procedures. Political party affiliation trends based on location. The Deadspin takedown covered numerous issues that have arisen since Univisions sale of the company to Great Hill, ranging from accounts of Spanfeller screaming at past employees, to allegations that the new G/O Media boss is on-boarding his old media buddies over highly qualified women who have worked at the company for years, along with numerous other accusations of mismanagement. 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 . It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. [1] Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Have a tip we should know? Well keep fighting for whats right. [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. 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. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. 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. Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. 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. That evening, the woman received an email from McAvoy telling her that the SVP of marketing job had been filled with someone who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. 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. Political affiliation. . He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". 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. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. Youre not qualified. Spanfeller did offer to promote one female employee, former chief of staff for The Onion Katie Pontius, and make her the companys head of talent, but the position fell through after he demanded that she fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarimas her first management move, which Pontius refused, according to sources who spoke to Deadspin. Voting precincts and districts.
A voter's representatives in government. [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. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. 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. 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 . "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. Sean Flanagan, 55, who was hired to lead east coast sales, was also installed over a female senior sales employee, who had been at the company for four years before she left in July. But Spanfeller said that he wants G/O Media to keep the voice and mission that made Gawker Media sites singular in the digital media industry. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. New York City. 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. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. I hold myself to a high regard and ensuring that Im respectful to others and create a community of camaraderie, hire for diversity, and that there is a work life balance, she told Deadspin. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. 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. 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. Shortly after the sale in April, she said, she met briefly with Spanfeller and explained to him her role and responsibilities in the company, which was primarily to work directly with clients to secure partnerships, instead of going through media ad agencies. 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. The CEO alleged. In an emailed statement to Deadspin, Spanfeller claimed that he did not make the hires, but admitted to making professional introductions for some of these new employees. 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. 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. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. 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. Where people are registered to vote. That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. Sign up for notifications from Insider! 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. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. 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. 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. Successfully sold . In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. We could have video analytics today. 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. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. 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. Ad revenue rebounded, Spanfeller told Insider last year. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. 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 . Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. In reality, this story started with a tip the site received about Spanfellers hiring practices, and grew from there thanks to sources accounts. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. Email us. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. The post, published Tuesday evening, proved wildly popular on Twitter. Several high-ranking employees have left the company over the past three months, departments have been stretched thin, and those who remain say that Spanfellers micromanaging and inappropriate interference has hamstrung their ability to effectively do their jobs. 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. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . 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. 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. 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. Jim Spanfeller . 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). The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to 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. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. Two other major jobs Spanfeller gave to women include his new head of talent and deputy counsel, which were both outside hires; he did give a promotion to one woman, who he made deputy editorial director. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. 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. 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. In addition to poor planning and communication around the video player, multiple sources say Spanfeller wouldnt allow the tech team to implement video tracking analytics on JW Player, so no one had any idea how many views videos were getting. 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. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Great Hill Partners is a growth equity company committed to building businesses. 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. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. 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. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). 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. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. 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? 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. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Smith And Wesson 38 Revolver,
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