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. New York City. Text. 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. Spanfeller did offer to promote one female employee, former chief of staff for The Onion Katie Pontius, and make her the companys head of talent, but the position fell through after he demanded that she fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarimas her first management move, which Pontius refused, according to sources who spoke to Deadspin. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. That is absurd. [2], In 2019, G/O Media's sports blog Deadspin received media attention when all of its writers and editors resigned after an edict given by upper management to "stick to sports". Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. 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. Youre not qualified. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! Stay up to date with what you want to know. Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. We shall have a discussion on the policy at the next EiCs leads meeting. [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. 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. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Vacillating Wildly From Dispiriting to Exhilarating. In addition to poor planning and communication around the video player, multiple sources say Spanfeller wouldnt allow the tech team to implement video tracking analytics on JW Player, so no one had any idea how many views videos were getting. 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. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. [5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. In an emailed statement to Deadspin, Spanfeller claimed that he did not make the hires, but admitted to making professional introductions for some of these new employees. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. 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They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. As traffic dipped and employees headed for the exits, staffers at the company wrote a letter to Great Hill asking that Spanfeller be replaced as CEO. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. Where people are registered to vote. 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. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? While Carmichael was on a plane to Paris, I discovered that G/O had changed her accounts URL from emma.kinja.com to lajskhclsahkchkad.kinja.com, while going to emma.kinja.com now redirects to the new URL, at the time of the change, it simply showed a broken page. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, in April Spanfeller offered the job of head of talent to Katie Pontius, who until recently was the chief of staff for The Onion, Inc. Everything theyve done in reaction to it is the herbiest shit I could possibly imagine. The private equity firm was able to snap up the deal for only about $25 million, according to a person with direct knowledge of the figure. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. 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. UPDATE: This article has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to former G/O Media Lynn Oberlander leaving her job shortly after the companys latest round of layoffs. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. 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 . 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. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. 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. 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. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. Its something that Im working to improve. 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. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. 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 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. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. Computing. 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. [1] He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . And Fake. Endnotes [1] Statement from G/O Media: "Some reports have miscast Jim Spanfeller as a private equity businessman when, in fact, he has spent his entire career in editorial-driven businesses. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. In two cases, women asked for and were promised the opportunity to interview for executive-level positions for which they were qualified, only to see Spanfeller hire one of his former colleagues before they were given a chance to interview. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). That union's collective bargaining agreement expires in February. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Throughout his career he has recieved more than 60 awards for his work from such . 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. [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. Email us. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. 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. In addition to clichs like we are ambitious and be passionate and have fun, the fifth value on the list said, We will be at our best when we embrace many different perspectives and experiences. 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. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. 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. [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. Jack Crosbie, a former Splinter contractor and co-owner of Discourse, said that traffic declined at Splinter because G/O did not refill lost positions. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. 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 . Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. 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. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. So put this piece on ice. Mike hired Steve, and Steve hired Lance after conducting a process around each hire. Great Hill Partners vice president Eric Ahlgren and managing partner Chris Gaffney did not respond to Deadspins emailed questions. At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. 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). 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. 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. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. Ad revenue rebounded, Spanfeller told Insider last year. [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. 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 fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Views. The four women who Spanfeller counts as major hires include two he hired (head of talent and deputy counsel); one he promoted from within to executive managing editor; and a yet-to-be-filled position he says he plans to offer to a woman. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. According to multiple sources inside the company, the post even joined the leading posts from official G/O sites on the big board, a large screen in the companys New York headquarters that displays that moments most highly trafficked storiesan unusual feat for a user-generated post. 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. While we were given a 3pm deadline today to respond to dozens of questions, I understand that the folks at Deadspin have already submitted their story for legal review and plan to publish it on Wednesday all without ever seeing any of the responses to the questions that they asked. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. Its Extremely Revealing. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. 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 will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, he told Insider, and hunt for acquisitions in 2022. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. It became clear that she was not a good fit for this position and we both agreed on this. 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. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. Have a tip we should know? 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.. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 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. That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. 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. The anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. While cleaning house and bringing in some trusted former colleagues is not entirely uncommon in private-equity acquisitions, Spanfeller filled nearly his entire top layer of management without any public recruitment process; the only woman hired as a department head, head of talent Angela Persaud, was also the only person at that level whose job was posted publicly. (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. Successfully sold . Sources say he was retained to consult on sales and how the department could work more directly with clients, which the now-former employee says was her job. 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 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. 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. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? No media company does. They cant even pitch effectively, said another employee who was present. 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. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. 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. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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. , 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). Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. Youre not qualified. 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. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. 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. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." tips@mediaite.com, Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. 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. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. I never changed my mind. I hired Katie who accepted the job, he wrote. 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. 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. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. I told Mike, verbally and in writing, that I would be interested in taking on new responsibilities and opportunities within the organization and I would like to interview for whatever position would be a part of that, she told Deadspin. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. 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. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. This response, which Spanfeller emailed out along with the questions to and answers from every other executive to the entire company as an attempt to undermine this story, prompted this response from a third sales employee. 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. Club, and Splinter, was purchased by the firm in April, along with the satirical news site The Onion, which led to a massive shift in the companys culture and considerable turnover in the top ranks or, as one G/O Media employee put it, Spanfeller has brought in a bunch of white dudes to change the company. 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. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. 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. We may earn a commission from links on this page. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. I told him I had a few questions Id like to ask him, and asked if he had any availability for a meeting the following day. 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. 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.".