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. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. 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. New York(CNN Business) Two former executives are suing G/O Media, the parent company of sites including Gizmodo, Deadspin and The Onion, alleging discrimination and negligence. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. 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.". 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. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. 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. 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. 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. Gov. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. 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. James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Never mind that employees called for his resignation last year. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). In addition to clichs like we are ambitious and be passionate and have fun, the fifth value on the list said, We will be at our best when we embrace many different perspectives and experiences. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. [1] We may earn a commission from links on this page. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. 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. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. Never mind the flood of negative stories about staff blowback over the company's editorial direction. As for the content of the survey, Reibstein said it is possible to read it as innocent, a way to attempt to gauge customer satisfaction, as its known in the marketing industry. I am and will continue to be a very strong advocate for my team.. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . Youre not qualified. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. When I followed up about the meeting the next day with Spanfeller, I was told it was canceled. 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. 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. Text. 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. Jim Spanfeller Biography. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. (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. Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. 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. [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. Heres The REAL Clip, Christian Walker GOES OFF on Predator Matt Schlapp for Allegedly Groping Male Campaign Staffer: Hes Done This Before, Im Sure!, LOL. [12], Spanfeller took over as CEO of G/O Media when Great Hill Partners purchased the company, formerly known as Gizmodo Media Group, and The Onion from Univision on April 8, 2019, and combined the companies. 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 . 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. 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.. I have stood up for and advocated for my team since the day I started at G/O. 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. 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. 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? 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. Views. Email us. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. Jim Spanfeller, I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. 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. 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. That distinction quickly sparked backlash in late 2019, when the staff of Deadspin resigned over the firing of a top editor and the company's mandate that the site stick to covering sports. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. These two highly talented HR executives then met with a number of people around our company including representatives of the unions., When asked why Spanfeller didnt follow this thorough search process before filling seven key positions with his former coworkers, he blamed his hiring practices on the financial shape of the company. 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. 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. In an email read to Deadspin, McAvoy agreed that she was qualified for the role and said he would talk with Spanfeller to ensure she was interviewed for the new opportunity, which had not been posted publicly. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. 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. 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. 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. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. Have a tip we should know? Jim Spanfeller . 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. 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. As you know, one reason that I dont believe that publications should write about themselves is because I fear it damages perceived external credibility in editorial independence, which, if anything, makes keeping advertisers at bay harder, not easier. 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. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. 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. He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. 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. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". Vice president of sales for the south Lance Johnson, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes (and most recently worked with Bruce Rogers at a company called SITO Mobile). Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . 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. Combined with more data-driven metrics like unique views, how long a reader spends on a story, and how many times a story is shared, reader feedback can provide useful information. When 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. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. I can see why. Where people are registered to vote. 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. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. 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. 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. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. [] While it is what we did at Forbes that has nothing to do with the reason to do it here. The other is still in college.. Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. 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. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. At an all-staff meeting this week, Knight told Spanfeller that August 15 is the target completion date, which Spanfeller told Deadspin he believes is achievable. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. 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. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . 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. 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. 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. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. Use this information as you see fit. According to Dave Reibstein, past chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association and a professor of marketing at University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business (where he teaches a course on market research), there are several problems with the survey. 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. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. In conversations with Deadspin, more than 20 employees from across the business, tech, and editorial departments of 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. 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. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. 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. 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. 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. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. 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. Other top employees who have left the company since the start of Spanfellers reign include former A.V. 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. In this specific case, I have committed to the current story being fully reported and submitted for external review and, if it passes that review, it will be published. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. 2. G/O Media sites generated about 45.7 million unique visitors in October, according to Comscore, down from 47.8 million in October 2020 and 101.6 million in October 2019, right before the Deadspin exodus. And Fake. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. 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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. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. 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 Jim characterized that as a misunderstanding, she said. Political affiliation. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. In reality, this story started with a tip the site received about Spanfellers hiring practices, and grew from there thanks to sources accounts. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. 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. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." We could have video analytics today. 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. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. According to sources familiar with the situation, the Onions union sent a letter to Spanfeller asking that he help provide a plan for the site and fill the vacuum left by top leadership. 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. His skin got bright red, she said. []. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller 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. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. My territory has been cut in half. 3. 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. Spanfeller told Insider that G/O Media plans to reinvest the profits into the business. 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. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. (Though the source spoke in great detail about her experience, she requested her name not be used because she didnt want it to affect her future employment opportunities.) 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. Its Extremely Revealing. 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. 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.
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