A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. His skin got bright red, she said.
[email protected], Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. 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. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. Without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company., You also had no interest in meeting the only woman on the revenue leadership team who is an SVP who has been successful., As the only woman on the previous revenue leadership team, I started to wonder if women were being considered for leadership roles., 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., The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey., Chief financial officer Tom Callahan, who worked at Forbes while Spanfeller worked there. 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. 4. That management did not respond to our request for an explanation is only another of the many ways the workers at GMG have been ignored and put on the back burner in the name of a profitability mirage that is clearly more attractive to the big decision-makers than a functioning workplace. 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. I am a father of three wonderful woman, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. 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. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. 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. 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. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. But those efforts did not go very far, the people said, and the company has yet to mount a takeover. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. 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,. 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 . 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. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. 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. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. In one case, sources say Spanfeller did offer to promote a woman to run human resources, but on the condition she fire another woman at the company as her first order of business. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. 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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. Sources say the meeting concluded with an agreement that the best course of action would be to explain to Spanfeller why the player would not be finished by August 15. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. 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. 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. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". That the story has been submitted for legal review without the benefit of our responses leads me to the conclusion that the piece is already fully written and that our responses to questions are mere window dressing. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. 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. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. New York City. Other top employees who have left the company since the start of Spanfellers reign include former A.V. The CEO alleged. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Use this information as you see fit. 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. Mad Money Twitter - Jim . Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? Unlike private equity investors who financially engineer acquisitions, burdening companies they buy with debt and massive . 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. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . Youre not qualified. 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. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. 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. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. [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. Jim characterized that as a misunderstanding, she said. Most recently, after the latest edict that Deadspin stick to sports, its writers revolted, and Spanfeller retaliated by firing the top-ranking employee, Petchesky (Deadspins latest editor-in-chief, Megan Greenwell quit in August for many of the reasons described above). Neither Sean nor Jim ever reached out to ask, Hey, what are you doing, how are you doing it, how is it working? There was never a conversation about my role, she told Deadspin. Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. 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. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. 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. 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. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. "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. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. 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. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. 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. 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. 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. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. 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 . 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. Ad revenue rebounded, Spanfeller told Insider last year. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. []. 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. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. I have communicated our timeline concerns to Jim and he understands that development is not an exact science and that goals may not be hit, Knight told Deadspin. . 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. 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. We shall have a discussion on the policy at the next EiCs leads meeting. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. 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. 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. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. It will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, he told Insider, and hunt for acquisitions in 2022. 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. 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. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Computing. 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. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. 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. 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. The key journalistic properties descended from . Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. For the last two questions, the options were the same: Uncompromising commentary, sports stories I cant find anywhere else, knowledgeable writers, broad scope of coverage, political coverage and strong political point of view, and criticism and coverage of other media companies.. 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. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. Its motivation is simply to publish true and interesting stories, and to make sure the things powerful people would rather stay in the dark end up in the light of day. This former staffer said the team wished to add Black creatives to help create more representative branded content to meet the demand, but it was not given additional resources. These men, and others who now hold C-suite positions at the company, were each hired without a public recruitment process, and several were installed over high-ranking women who had been successfully performing those jobs at the company for years. 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. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. Views. 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. In his email to the staff, Spanfeller described this story as one that had been commissioned by the site, and attempted to paint the reporting process behind it as haphazard and unfair.