These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. 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 - CEO - G/O Media | LinkedIn Well keep fighting for whats right. 20 Employees Complained to Deadspin About Spanfellers Management, After interviewing nearly two dozen employees, Deadspin found that 20 people who work for 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.. 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,. 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. 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. 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. (check all that apply). The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. 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He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. 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. 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. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. Spanfeller says Pontius accepted the job, but he decided she was not a good fit for this position after Pontius refused to join me in communicating our plans to fire Banikarim. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. 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? Takeaways From Deadspin's Expos of G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! "From the outset, CEO Jim Spanfeller has worked to undermine a successful site by curtailing its most well-read coverage because it makes him personally uncomfortable," the Gizmodo Media Group . It was four days old. Email us. The role was not posted nor was it communicated to me in time where I would have even been given equal opportunity to be considered, she said. 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. 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. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. G/O Media lawsuits: Two former exec allege discrimination - CNN Voting precincts and districts. Great Hill Partners and current CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes, bought these sites and the Onion from Univision Communications Inc. in April. 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. No one has been named interim editor, and there is no succession plan in place. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. 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. (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.) We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. 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. [8] In June 1993, Spanfeller became associate publisher for advertising at Inc. magazine, replacing Kristin Norrgard, who left to become publisher of Working Woman magazine. Successfully sold . They are parti pris, which is why the overwhelming majority do not do so and many will not even report on rivals for the same reason. Top Women at the Company Expressed Interest in Filling Executive Roles and Were Promised Interview Opportunities Prior to Spanfeller Hiring His Friends, Two G/O Media employees Deadspin spoke to, who are women who have an experienced track record with the company, say Spanfeller promised to give them a chance to interview for upper-level roles. Its something that Im working to improve. 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.". Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. 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. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. 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. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. 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. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. 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. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. 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. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. 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 . Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. Back to the Office, But Only to Picket - Curbed Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. Since Spanfeller took over G/O Media in April, more than a dozen people have left the company voluntarily, in addition to the 25 people who were laid off. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. 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. 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. Its Extremely Revealing. 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. A spokesperson for G/O has yet to respond to a request for clarification, but we will update this post if and when that changes. 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. 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. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? 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. Political party affiliation trends based on location. "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb": The rise and fall of a blog post. 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. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. 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. Former CEO of http://Forbes.com, Chairman Emeritus, IAB, Sec OPA NYCJoined April 2009 266Following 1,878Followers Tweets Tweets & replies Media Likes Jim Spanfeller's Tweets Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Mar 13, 2020 Good News! Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over 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. 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 . Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. 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.
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