I was unclear about what she did. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. Use this information as you see fit. 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. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. We may earn a commission from links on this page. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. 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. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. 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. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Jim Spanfeller - Chief Executive Officer @ G/O Media - Crunchbase Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com 4 Dumb Ways Your Favorite Sites Are Dying | Cracked.com I never changed my mind. 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. 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. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages 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. 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.. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. 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. 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). G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. 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). Sources say that on the tech side of the company, Spanfeller has taken to micromanaging various aspects of developers work, holding meetings to ask what each one is working on, demanding detailed accounts of how they spend their working days, and mandating various projects based on his work at Forbes in the mid-2000s. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . 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. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. 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.". [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. What's happening at Deadspin is a travesty | The Outline 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. Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of 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. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. 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. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. 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. 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. Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! I was disappointed. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. Gov. 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. The post was so popular, in fact, that it apparently gained the attention and ire of Spanfeller himself (perhaps partially due to the fact that someone registered Deadspin2.com and set it to redirect to Carmichaels post). 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. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. 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. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. 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. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? 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. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. 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. 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 . 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. 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. But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. I am and will continue to be a very strong advocate for my team.. 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. "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. Political party affiliation trends based on location. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. 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. 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. , in respect of a candidate, means the name of the political party that has endorsed him or her or the word "independent", as the case may be, included in the nomination paper in accordance with subparagraph 66 (1) (a) (v). A senior vice president who has worked for what is now G/O Media for four and a half years met with Spanfeller in the companys Chicago office shortly after he purchased the company in April. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. That said, I and the management team received a list of questions from the reporter working this story for Deadspin and those questions left me greatly concerned about the objectivity and core intentions of this piece. (Spanfeller says this is inaccurate and that he did consider other candidates for the editorial director role, but Paul quickly rose to the top after he expressed an interest in the position.) Three of the men Spanfeller hired were installed over successful women who had been at the company for years. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. [] While it is what we did at Forbes that has nothing to do with the reason to do it here. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. 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. 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. 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 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. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. 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. 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 can see why. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. "There's a fly and he's a swatter, and that's it," the former executive said. A G/O Media spokesperson said the company plans to grow the 174-person editorial headcount to 200 by the end of the first quarter next year. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. In the months that followed, without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller, 62, hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company. In the email, Spanfeller said he was "greatly concerned about the objectivity and core intentions of this piece," and questioned the editorial standards of Deadspin's editors. 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 key journalistic properties descended from . 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 . 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. 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. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. The post, published Tuesday evening, proved wildly popular on Twitter. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . 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. In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. 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. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. No media company does. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. According to sources familiar with the situation, the tech team was instructed by Knight, who was directed by Spanfeller, to push out the survey without consent from anyone in editorial. 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. Dead and spun: a story in three meetings - Columbia Journalism Review Former Daily News Editor in Chief Is Tapped to Run Deadspin 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 Media Group. 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. And Fake. Jim Spanfeller Biography & Works of Art | Qart.com These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied 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. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. [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. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. 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. 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. According to his LinkedIn, Thompson is the founder of Mediacentric Inc., a multi-media representation company., A man was hired with my same title [vice president for west coast sales] to be my boss, the VP told Deadspin. 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. [14] A subsequent Deadspin post mocked Spanfeller as a "herb"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Cramer finally reveals whether he is pro-Trump or anti-Trump - CNBC Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. G/O Media Workers Call on Owners to Replace CEO - WSJ 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. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. Political affiliation Definition | Law Insider The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. 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. From a womans perspective, I did feel very belittled. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. 3. 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. 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. 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. 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. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. 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. Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. Jim Spanfeller - Wikipedia [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. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. tips@mediaite.com, Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. The other is still in college.. I have stood up for and advocated for my team since the day I started at G/O. "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb": The rise and fall of a blog post. Spanfellers pushed back against these internal criticisms of his questionably ethical hiring process and management style by blaming G/O Media for losing money too fast. 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. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. 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. 2. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . 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. 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. And I didnt know what Sean was doing. My territory has been cut in half. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. 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 . 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. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. She said Spanfeller told her that he was unaware of what she did at the company, and that she replied: That doesnt help, because that says you not only didnt know what I did, but you also had no interest in meeting the only woman on the revenue leadership team who is an SVP who has been successful, according to meeting her revenue and finance goals. She said the conversation ended with Spanfeller saying, Im sorry, I dont know what else you want me to say., Spanfeller confirmed the womans account to Deadspin. 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. Deadspin cited an account from a former writer at The Daily Meal, a food and beverage site that Spanfeller founded in 2015, who claims her former boss once started screaming at her because she voiced concerns about writing a story on the websites earning figures, which she felt she was not qualified for.