I never changed my mind. Whats left of that company is currently called G/O Media. 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. [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. (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.) We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. . 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. 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.". Other top employees who have left the company since the start of Spanfellers reign include former A.V. 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. One of the former staffers said that as companies sought to double down on diversity and inclusion during the summer of 2020, the branded content team received incoming requests from companies hoping to fund content for The Root, G/O Media's Black news publication. One major conflict arose over whether the company should build a video player in-house or pay for a third-party platform. Spanfellers pushed back against these internal criticisms of his questionably ethical hiring process and management style by blaming G/O Media for losing money too fast. "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 . Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. 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. pretty big scoop from me Jim Spanfeller is a herb https://t.co/gZDCs6mfhC. I was disappointed. Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. 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. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. When asked by Deadspin why he wouldnt name an interim editor while that search took place in order to stabilize the site and ensure that the people filling in were properly compensated for their work, Spanfeller said that the Onion union demanded that we immediately promote two people into those roles. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. Or to keep it anonymous, click here. I am a father of three wonderful woman. (Pontius left the company.) 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. 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. Asked about the meeting, Knight initially didnt answer. Asked about the former employees accounts, Spanfeller said he has no idea what this refers to and it is not my recollection of working at The Daily Meal, adding that he doesnt recall screaming at anyone. Political party affiliation trends based on location. "There's a fly and he's a swatter, and that's it," the former executive said. Asked about the contract, Spanfeller responded, I firmly believe in editorial integrity. 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). 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. (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. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. Well keep fighting for whats right. At the time of publication, Carmichaels original tweet has been retweeted more than 300 times. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. 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). Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. 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. When pressed, Knight admitted the deadline may be unrealistic. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. 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 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. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. 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! These two highly talented HR executives then met with a number of people around our company including representatives of the unions., When asked why Spanfeller didnt follow this thorough search process before filling seven key positions with his former coworkers, he blamed his hiring practices on the financial shape of the company. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. Then, Thursday night, after Bernie Sanders tweeted in support of Deadspin, supporter collective People for Bernie tweeted the post at its new URL: After which, sometime today, the post disappeared, only to be replaced by this: Its not entirely clear which of Kinjas guidelines were violated, particularly considering that theres no agreed upon definition of what constitutes a herb. 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. 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. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. 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. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. 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. But Spanfellers expectation that the process would be done in the next week or so shocked the tech team. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. 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. Laura M. Browning and Caitlin PenzeyMoog, the A.V. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. Political affiliation. 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. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. Once it became clear that the sales department was being restructured in Kurt Muellers absence, another female vice president, who had been at the company for four years, asked McAvoy in early June for the opportunity to be considered for an expanded sales role, providing examples to show her success at the company. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Whenever a publication shuts down, as has happened more and more over the last few years, it undergoes a public eulogizing by its employees, the friends of its employees, the people who wanted to work there, and most importantly the readers, whose tributes are . 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. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. 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. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). 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 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. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. 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. Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. 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. 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. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. 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. 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. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . Great Hill Partners and current CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes, bought these sites and the Onion from Univision Communications Inc. in April. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. [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. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? 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. 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. It became clear that she was not a good fit for this position and we both agreed on this. G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. 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. G/O Media shuttered its politics site, Splinter, in 2019. That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. 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. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). Top Women at the Company Expressed Interest in Filling Executive Roles and Were Promised Interview Opportunities Prior to Spanfeller Hiring His Friends, Two G/O Media employees Deadspin spoke to, who are women who have an experienced track record with the company, say Spanfeller promised to give them a chance to interview for upper-level roles. Mr. McAvoy was clear to me on his opinion that he did not think she was the right choice at this time, Spanfeller said. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. 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. Meanwhile, many people who are still at the company feel their work is being hindered by new management. 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. 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. In the midst of the fallout, former Deadspin, Gawker, and Jezebel editor Emma Carmichael had a spirited discussion with [former Jezebel writer] Clio Chang on the overwhelming herbishness of Jim Spanfeller, she told me over the phone. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. She said Spanfeller didnt have many questions for her, describing him as apathetic. Spanfeller seemed not to recall this interaction, telling Deadspin that the sales team was not covering direct clients.. 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. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. 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. 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. Jim characterized that as a misunderstanding, she said. 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. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. Use this information as you see fit. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. 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. Have a tip we should know? 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. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. A voter's representatives in government. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. A source said Spanfeller told editors-in-chief of the companys websites that he had chosen Maidment, 68, for the job before the sale was completed and did not interview other candidates, including Banikarim. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. 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. About their hires, he wrote, I introduced Steve and Lance to Mike McAvoy, but I did not make the hires. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. (The other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) 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). in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. Its something that Im working to improve. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? That is absurd. (Spanfeller denies this claim.). 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. McAvoy described the SVP of marketing job as a combination of sales strategy, account management, and managing creative teamsall responsibilities that fell under the SVPs purview. Page 1 of 9,554,641. 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. [7], Spanfeller was named associate publisher and senior vice president of marketing of Playboy Enterprises in April 1989. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. Multiple people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group) told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldnt cede any control. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. 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. 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. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. No media company does. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. 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. 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.