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. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. Email us. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. When she tried to edit the post, she was greeted by the following image: Attempts to create a new post were similarly thwarted. 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. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. 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. Use this information as you see fit. 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. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. I have stood up for and advocated for my team since the day I started at G/O. Its something that Im working to improve. Oberlander actually left last week. It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. 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. 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. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller: Company Will Be Profitable by - Insider 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. 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 . 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. And he made sure to make it clear that I just didnt get it in his mind that I just didnt get this whole digital thing, she said. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. 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. For instance, Rogers, who sits in a corner office in New York, still hasnt been formally announced as a new employee internally or externally, and sources who work in sales say its unclear what his job description is, though he evidently has plenty of time to contribute to Forbes, where he posted 14 articles in July. All rights reserved. When asked if she stood by the content of the since-disappeared post, Carmichael remained steadfast: I did really careful, thorough research, and the evidence is there. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. Im sorry that Mike didnt more clearly convey the information to me., McAvoy said, Jim has a different recollection of the facts., The SVP said she told Spanfeller that she wasnt the only person who noticed this pattern of hiring his former colleagues over women at the company, and that he should be prepared to address it. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. 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. In its brief life, the postwritten by Emma Carmichael, a former editor at a former version of the companywas viewed nearly 100,000 times and was tweeted out by the official People for Bernie Twitter account. 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. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. G/O Media lawsuits: Two former exec allege discrimination - CNN I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. As you know, one reason that I dont believe that publications should write about themselves is because I fear it damages perceived external credibility in editorial independence, which, if anything, makes keeping advertisers at bay harder, not easier. (check all that apply). 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. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. In conversations with Deadspin, more than 20 employees from across the business, tech, and editorial departments of 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. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. 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. Vice president for west coast sales Steve Thompson, who worked with Spanfeller at, Vice president for east coast sales Sean Flanagan, who worked with Spanfeller at. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating. His skin got bright red, she said. (Spanfeller denies this claim.). In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. In late July, more than a month after the womans conversation with Spanfeller (and after the Daily Beast and New York Post published stories about his rocky early days at the company and he became aware of the reporting process for this story about his hiring practices), that same VP was given what management called a promotion, which Spanfeller noted in his responses to Deadspin, saying that she has been promoted to VP Marketing under Bruce Rogers with wider responsibilities., I am at the same level and performing the same duties now as I was before I got this supposed promotion, the VP said. 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. 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. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. [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. 4. "We have billions of dollars available to go out and buy and make this a bigger company, and that would really be our desire," Gaffney said. (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.) Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. (Pontius left the company.) Views. 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. 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. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. One theory was that Spanfeller thought implementing analytics would take developer resources away from building the new video platform and player, though employees said implementing analytics is a relatively easy fix. "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb": The rise and fall of a blog post. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. The anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. 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. (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. "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 . Youre not qualified. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. After Gawker's high-profile legal battle with Hulk Hogan, Univision in 2016 purchased its other media properties out of bankruptcy for $135 million, but struggled and sold the assets, including add-ons like The Onion, to Great Hill Partners in 2019. 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. 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. 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. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. Text. Head of The Onion, Deadspin sued for sex discrimination - New York Post Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. [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. 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. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. It wasn't Great Hill's first foray into the media business it had previously invested in IGN and sold Ziff Davis but the G/O deal was a tiny one for a firm that describes itself as "targeting investments of $25 million to $500 million.". Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. Never mind the flood of negative stories about staff blowback over the company's editorial direction. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. I realized that I wasnt communicating my advocacy for the department or our initiatives to upper management and other departments back to the team clearly enough. Gov. 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. Back to the Office, But Only to Picket - Curbed Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? Or to keep it anonymous, click here. 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. 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,. 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. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O 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. About their hires, he wrote, I introduced Steve and Lance to Mike McAvoy, but I did not make the hires. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 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. Jim Rich, the former Daily News editor charged with bringing Deadspin back to life following a mass staff exodus, has resigned after just 18 months on the job, The Post has learned. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. Computing. Deadspin Editor Fired Amid Pushback Over 'Stick to Sports' Memo The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. Voting precincts and districts. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. , 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). 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. Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post [We] had a phone conversation, kind of confronting Jim about it, and he told Mike, I thought we talked about this. It was throwing Mike under the bus, and Mike told Jim that they had not talked about it.
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