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. 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. 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? 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. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. According to his LinkedIn, Thompson is the founder of Mediacentric Inc., a multi-media representation company., A man was hired with my same title [vice president for west coast sales] to be my boss, the VP told Deadspin. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). Maidment never responded to my questions directly; the first time I saw his answers was when they were included in Spanfellers company-wide email, but he had this to say about his role in the newsroom: I have always shielded the editorial teams I have managed from commercial or business-side interference in what they write, which to my mind is the essence of editorial integrity. The anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. 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. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. The other is still in college.. [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. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". I was disappointed. A voter's representatives in government. 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. 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. Initially, we had to move fast because the company was losing money at a rapid pace, he said. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. 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 other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. 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. 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. 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. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. A senior vice president who has worked for what is now G/O Media for four and a half years met with Spanfeller in the companys Chicago office shortly after he purchased the company in April. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. 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. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? 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. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. 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. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com
James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. Gaffney said the firm was prepared to hold onto the investment for a decade or more and that Spanfeller, a former Forbes and Playboy executive, does not have a time frame for preparing the company for a sale. 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! The rigorous and thorough reporting, editing, and legal review process that Greenwell promised to oversee has since been completed, which is why you are reading this story now. 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 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. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. 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. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. The union said that it wants the money to translate into higher salary minimums, trans-inclusive healthcare, and a focus on talent retention. All rights reserved. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. 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. 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. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. After two years of mainly working from home, the company wants everyone back in the office four days a week. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. The two former staffers described Spanfeller as a micromanager who insists on approving minor budget items and sitting in on meetings far beneath his level, like editorial audience meetings with. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. [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. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? As for the content of the survey, Reibstein said it is possible to read it as innocent, a way to attempt to gauge customer satisfaction, as its known in the marketing industry. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! 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 . 3. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. 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. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. And as the only woman on the previous revenue leadership team, I started to wonder if women were being considered for leadership roles. Indeed, Spanfeller told Deadspin that he first contacted Rogers about the job on June 11. He sent a message back about the importance of diversity and inclusion and a full hiring process. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. 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). He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. Spanfeller said he would go into negotiations "with an open mind and good faith," but a former executive at the company predicted conflict at the negotiating table between the union and the CEO, given their view of Spanfeller's heavy-handed leadership style. 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. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. 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. 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, but Spanfeller is perhaps best known for dramatically increasing Forbes.coms focus on digital advertising (Spanfeller also previously served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau). "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. For the life of me, I am not sure how you can have a legal review without a complete story and I cannot imagine how you can consider your work to be objective without reviewing the answers to the questions that you have asked. 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. So put this piece on ice. Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. 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). Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. Have a tip or story idea? When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. 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. tips@mediaite.com, Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . 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. Use this information as you see fit. 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. "There's been a lot of pain in this, but it's worth it to get properties that are as great as these properties are," Spanfeller said of G/O's 11 publications, which include Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Onion, Lifehacker, The Root, and Kotaku. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. On Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees can submit anonymous reviews of their workplaces, reviews of The Daily Meal are overwhelmingly negative. "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. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. Have a tip we should know? 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. Its Extremely Revealing. 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.". 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. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. But as Spanfeller began to implement his vision, that hope was replaced by employee frustration and skepticism over his hiring practices and interference with the companys journalism. Ad revenue rebounded, Spanfeller told Insider last year. "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. Laura M. Browning and Caitlin PenzeyMoog, the A.V. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. 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. G/O Media, owner of Gizmodo and The Onion, will post an eight-figure operating profit this year, CEO Jim Spanfeller says. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. 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. Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. Among the multiple Gawker and/or GMG and/or G/O websites I wrote for was, for a brief stint, Deadspin, which is currently without a staff after every single one of its writers quit en masse following the firing of beloved editor Barry Petchesky, who is another friend of mine. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). 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. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. ohio star theater events,