jim spanfeller political affiliationjim spanfeller political affiliation

[5] Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. 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. 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. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. Spanfeller told Insider that G/O Media plans to reinvest the profits into the business. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. At an all-staff meeting this week, Knight told Spanfeller that August 15 is the target completion date, which Spanfeller told Deadspin he believes is achievable. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. 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. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. I can see why. G/O Media, the newly formed company comprised of the assets of the former Gizmodo Media, will lay off 25 employees, according to a memo that company CEO Jim Spanfeller sent to staffers on Tuesday. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. I was going on the input I had been given by Mike McAvoy that he had discussed the position with her and laid out why she was not ready for the larger role. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com 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. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). When she tried to edit the post, she was greeted by the following image: Attempts to create a new post were similarly thwarted. The fourth known instance of Spanfeller overlooking a woman at the company in favor of a white male former colleague also happened on the sales team. 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. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. View details on more than 95 Million registered voters across the United States. 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 . Spanfeller accused writers and editors of acting in bad faith based on a list of questions submitted to him before publication and the fact that a draft of the article had been sent for legal. 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. 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,. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. . 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. The key journalistic properties descended from . Deadspin cited an account from a former writer at The Daily Meal, a food and beverage site that Spanfeller founded in 2015, who claims her former boss once started screaming at her because she voiced concerns about writing a story on the websites earning figures, which she felt she was not qualified for. 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. About their hires, he wrote, I introduced Steve and Lance to Mike McAvoy, but I did not make the hires. 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.". Use this information as you see fit. 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.. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. [14] A subsequent Deadspin post mocked Spanfeller as a "herb"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. 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.. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . Oberlander actually left last week. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. On July 30, the day after I emailed reporting questions to Spanfeller, Maidment, Rogers, Jesse Knight, and Sean Flanagan, Spanfeller sent a company-wide email under the subject line Reporting on Ourselves; Deadspin Reporting On The Company and Our Executives. In the email, excerpts of which were published by media reporters from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, Spanfeller voiced his opinion on how coverage of the company should work: I believe the solution is to have that reporting reviewed by an impartial outside editor a Public Editor, if you will [] and not just for these situations but for any situation where someone within or without the company has issues with our coverage or reporting. 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. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. 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. It became clear that she was not a good fit for this position and we both agreed on this. 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. Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. 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. 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. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. 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. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. 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. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 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. Elsewhere in the company, G/O Media has pushed staffers at its site the AV Club to relocate to Los Angeles from Chicago, according to a recent report in Gawker, which is now owned by Bustle Digital Group. Sign up for notifications from Insider! If I had known, I would have been happy to interview her and consider her for the role., On June 20, the next time Spanfeller was in Chicago, the SVP met with him to ask why she had been overlooked. 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. He previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Forbes.com, a leading media Internet company, and as Executive Vice President . And I didnt know what Sean was doing. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. 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. 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. We could have video analytics today. Never mind that employees called for his resignation last year. The other is still in college.. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. 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. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. She asked McAvoy, then her immediate supervisor, for the opportunity to interview for the position, citing her leadership of the revenue division, her construction of a diverse team, and her renown in the industry. In turn, Spanfeller hired a number of his old media friends and former colleagues from Forbes, Playboy, and other outlets to fill top roles at G/O Media, while also failing to make public job postings for many of these roles. "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. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. In reality, this story started with a tip the site received about Spanfellers hiring practices, and grew from there thanks to sources accounts. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. Political party affiliation trends based on location. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. Its Extremely Revealing. 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. 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. 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. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? He credited The Root for its journalism on the Black Lives Matter movement. And Fake. His skin got bright red, she said. . 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. I am a father of three wonderful woman, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. 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. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. 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. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Jim Spanfeller, He also claimed to have hired four women for major roles though, one of these jobs has not been filled yet, as Spanfeller instead claims he plans to give it to a woman. [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. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. 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. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. 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. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Great Hill Partners is a growth equity company committed to building businesses. 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] 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. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. 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. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. In all of those cases Jim listened to my arguments and in many cases agreed with me and the issue was settled, he wrote in response to one question. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. 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. 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. Well keep fighting for whats right. 1. 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. 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. 4. But those efforts did not go very far, the people said, and the company has yet to mount a takeover. 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. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. 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. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. 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. 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. Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. 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. 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). That is absurd. 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. It wasnt collaborative.. Never mind the recent exodus of company leadership under his tenure, including the editorial director, chief financial officer, and chief revenue officer. 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. 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. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. [4] He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. Everything theyve done in reaction to it is the herbiest shit I could possibly imagine. (check all that apply). 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. Other top employees who have left the company since the start of Spanfellers reign include former A.V. 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. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. This has led to some protest among employees, as one staffer told Deadspin, It definitely feels like its the old boys club. A second employee told the site, This guy just seems like he doesnt like women.. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 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. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

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