Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com 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. 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. Successfully sold . 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. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). 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.". 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. 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. 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. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . (The other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! We had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. So put this piece on ice. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. I was disappointed. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. 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. "People are scared of him. 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 . 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). G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. 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. Great Hill Partners is a growth equity company committed to building businesses. I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. [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. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. 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 Use this information as you see fit. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. The takeover of G/O Media, previosuly known as Gizmodo Media Group and Gawker Media, by former Forbes executive Jim Spanfellercontinues to throttle downhill, as one of the companys news sites, Deadspin, published a scathing expos on Friday detailing a litany of problems employees have faced since investment firm Great Hill purchased Gizmodo and placed Spanfeller in control. 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. Well keep fighting for whats right. 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. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. 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. 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. In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. . I was unclear about what she did. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. The employees, nearly all of whom requested anonymity because of fears of retaliation from company management, are angered by a lack of communication regarding company goals, seeming disregard for promoting diversity within the top ranks of the company, and by repeated and egregious interference with editorial procedures. 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 is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. In that 30-minute meeting, the woman told Deadspin, Spanfeller told her that Univision had been a bad owner and that he saw an opportunity to make improvements and turn a profit. 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. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? 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. The detection of possible errors in a person's voter record as well as instructions on how to update it. (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. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Spanfeller said he would go into negotiations "with an open mind and good faith," but a former executive at the company predicted conflict at the negotiating table between the union and the CEO, given their view of Spanfeller's heavy-handed leadership style. In addition to the removal of the post itself, Carmichael also discovered that shes now unable to use her personal Kinja account at all. 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. And Fake. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." 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. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. 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. Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Mr. McAvoy was clear to me on his opinion that he did not think she was the right choice at this time, Spanfeller said. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. His skin got bright red, she said. 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. Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. 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. One major conflict arose over whether the company should build a video player in-house or pay for a third-party platform. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. View details on more than 95 Million registered voters across the United States. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. All rights reserved. James J. Spanfeller serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President of Electronic Publishing for . When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. 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. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION are core to our culture, and we expect all staff to advance and promote that. Heartened, the SVP emailed Spanfeller to remind him of their meeting in April and express her hope that women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBTQ would be considered as he hired his leadership team, and to say that she looked forward to discussing her role in the organization. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. 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. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. 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. 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. We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. 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. Oberlander actually left last week. Other top employees who have left the company since the start of Spanfellers reign include former A.V. 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. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma.

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