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.
Voter Registration Records He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. 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. 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. View details on more than 95 Million registered voters across the United States. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. 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. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. 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. 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. Never mind that employees called for his resignation last year.
G/O Media lawsuits: Two former exec allege discrimination - CNN Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . Whenever a publication shuts down, as has happened more and more over the last few years, it undergoes a public eulogizing by its employees, the friends of its employees, the people who wanted to work there, and most importantly the readers, whose tributes are . 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. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. 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.
Back to the Office, But Only to Picket - Curbed In addition to the removal of the post itself, Carmichael also discovered that shes now unable to use her personal Kinja account at all. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 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. 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. 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. 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. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, in April Spanfeller offered the job of head of talent to Katie Pontius, who until recently was the chief of staff for The Onion, Inc. 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. 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. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. Unlike private equity investors who financially engineer acquisitions, burdening companies they buy with debt and massive . Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. 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. The VP, who said she now reports to Thompson, said all of her previous reviews from her managers have exceeded expectations, and that she was able to more than double revenue for my region in less than a year. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. 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. In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. The other is still in college.. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. 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. 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. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. 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.
Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. Stay up to date with what you want to know. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. Have a tip or story idea? 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. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. 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 instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. I was unclear about what she did. On July 30, the day after I emailed reporting questions to Spanfeller, Maidment, Rogers, Jesse Knight, and Sean Flanagan, Spanfeller sent a company-wide email under the subject line Reporting on Ourselves; Deadspin Reporting On The Company and Our Executives. In the email, excerpts of which were published by media reporters from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Spanfeller voiced his opinion on how coverage of the company should work: I believe the solution is to have that reporting reviewed by an impartial outside editor a Public Editor, if you will [] and not just for these situations but for any situation where someone within or without the company has issues with our coverage or reporting.
The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review Multiple sources say that Spanfeller reached out to VP of media operations Brad Klancnik to tell him he was a valuable employee and that the new owners would like him to stay at the company, but female VPs say he did not relay such messages to them. 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. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. 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. 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. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! 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.
Gizmodo Media Staff Enraged at New CEO's 'Insane' Direction Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. 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. During an internal sales summit meeting in New York on June 19, sales execs practiced pitching G/O Medias general presentation, a deck of about 15 slides that tells clients why they should do business with the company. Never mind the flood of negative stories about staff blowback over the company's editorial direction. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Ex-Deadspin EIC Jim Rich resigns in latest turmoil at G/O Media 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? 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. This has led to some protest among employees, as one staffer told Deadspin, It definitely feels like its the old boys club. A second employee told the site, This guy just seems like he doesnt like women.. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. The CEO alleged. 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. 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. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. 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. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. It became clear that she was not a good fit for this position and we both agreed on this. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. "[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. Both lawsuits detail discrimination personally faced or witnessed by the plaintiffs from Jim Spanfeller, who became CEO of G/O Media in April after private equity firm Great Hill acquired Gizmodo . 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.
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. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. 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.