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. 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. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Have a tip we should know? 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. 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. 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. [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. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. [] While it is what we did at Forbes that has nothing to do with the reason to do it here. Use this information as you see fit. 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. 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. According to Great Hill Partners website, Spanfeller has led comparable media platforms and positioned them for successful strategic exit, which probably means something to someone, somewhere, but Spanfeller is perhaps best known for dramatically increasing Forbes.coms focus on digital advertising (Spanfeller also previously served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau). I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. 1. Jim Spanfeller - Wikipedia 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 other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) 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,. 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. 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. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former 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 . The Onion Union, which represents AV Club staffers, told Insider in a statement that it hoped "this period of prosperity creates tangible benefits for all of our members especially those whose jobs are being moved to Los Angeles, one of the most expensive cities in the world.". In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. It is also worth noting that multiple internal candidates have expressed interest in the position of EIC of the A/V Club. The Onion union declined to comment, but a source with knowledge of the situation disputed that the union demanded promotions, saying its letter demanded action and used the words We ask for the following when addressing promotions. The anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. 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. 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. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. 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. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. 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. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. 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. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. Email him here: [email protected] 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 was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. His skin got bright red, she said. And he made sure to make it clear that I just didnt get it in his mind that I just didnt get this whole digital thing, she said. Jim Spanfeller, Jim Spanfeller Biography. 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. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages 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. 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. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. 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 am a father of three wonderful woman. 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. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. These actions are clearly management attempting to target, and even intimidate, staff into changing their editorial stance in spite of our contract-protected independence, especially as it comes on the heels of managements repeated attempts to kill this story as it was being reported about the company. 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. G/O Media executives have discussed potential deal targets in the past, including Genius, The Hill, and HuffPost, according to two people familiar with the matter. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. 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. 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. [We] had a phone conversation, kind of confronting Jim about it, and he told Mike, I thought we talked about this. It was throwing Mike under the bus, and Mike told Jim that they had not talked about it. Jim Spanfeller - CEO - G/O Media | LinkedIn 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. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! "We are happy to hear that the company is profitable and financially stable enough for Jim Spanfeller to consider further acquisitions, and look forward to welcoming more workers into our union," the G/O Media union said in a statement. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. 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. 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. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. 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. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. 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.". (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). 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. 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. 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. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 20012009. The other is still in college.. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. "There's been a lot of pain in this, but it's worth it to get properties that are as great as these properties are," Spanfeller said of G/O's 11 publications, which include Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion, Lifehacker, The Root, and Kotaku. 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. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. 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. []. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. 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. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. Gizmodo Media Staff Enraged at New CEO's 'Insane' Direction These include a senior vice president of marketing who last week wrote a baffling reader satisfaction survey for Deadspin at Spanfellers behest; a sales executive who, sources say, appears unable to give an effective sales pitch; and an editorial director who repeatedly attempted to kill the reporting process for this story. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. 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. 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. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. 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. Spanfeller said that he wasnt preventing, just delaying analytics from being implemented, on the grounds that its not particularly useful information at the moment. (The day after Deadspin contacted Spanfeller for comment, the tech team was given the green light to roll out video analytics. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. 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. 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. New York City. (check all that apply). [2][3], Spanfeller graduated from Union College with a B.A. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. "People are scared of him. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. 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. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. But those efforts did not go very far, the people said, and the company has yet to mount a takeover. That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. Mad Money Twitter - Jim . Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. I never changed my mind. 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. 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 [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. 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. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. [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". Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. 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. And Fake. Spanfeller, a man who is regularly and perhaps euphemistically referred to in press accounts as a digital media veteran, has so far hired a slew of his former colleagues at Forbes.comwhere he was CEO from 2001 to 2009and Playboywhere he was a senior vice president from 1989 to 1993. 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. Just two weeks after Spanfeller and Great Hill acquired the company, and less than a week after he said in an interview with Variety that he didnt expect any layoffs, Spanfeller fired 25 people across the 400-person company, including Susie Banikarim, GMGs widely respected editorial director, and the only person of color on the executive leadership team at the time. No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. (Pontius declined to comment. Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied [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. Throughout his career he has recieved more than 60 awards for his work from such . Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On 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. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. 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. 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. 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. 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. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller: Company Will Be Profitable by - Insider "We have billions of dollars available to go out and buy and make this a bigger company, and that would really be our desire," Gaffney said. Below are some of the biggest revelations outlined in Deadspins roughly 7,000 word report on their parent company and its new management, which they spoke to nearly two dozen G/O Media employees for.
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