jim spanfeller political affiliation jim spanfeller political affiliation

In a follow-up meeting with Spanfeller about the story, she suggested that hard financial data might not be their audiences central interest. 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. 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. 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. That the story has been submitted for legal review without the benefit of our responses leads me to the conclusion that the piece is already fully written and that our responses to questions are mere window dressing. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. I never changed my mind. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. 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. In conversations with Deadspin, more than 20 employees from across the business, tech, and editorial departments of G/O Media expressed frustration with Spanfellers approach to hiring and his new executives lack of knowledge about the company combined with their seeming unwillingness or inability to get up to speed. The tech team managed to execute the move in about a month, but before they had finished, Spanfeller changed course and decided that the developers should build an entirely new video platform and player from scratch, explaining the decision by saying that that was what he did at Forbes, according to employees involved. 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. (The other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) Email us. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. (Pontius left the company.) That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. 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. The survey on Deadspin, however, had some serious issues, he said. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. Details may include related records, political party, location, and more. 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. "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. 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. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com 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. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. 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. 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. 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. ), This isnt the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. 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. [5], In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. 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. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. 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. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). 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. 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. 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. Political party affiliation trends based on location. "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. Its something that Im working to improve. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. 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. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. When I followed up about the meeting the next day with Spanfeller, I was told it was canceled. Have a tip or story idea? 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. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). 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. Jim Spanfeller, 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. The CEO alleged. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. Unlike private equity investors who financially engineer acquisitions, burdening companies they buy with debt and massive . My territory has been cut in half. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. 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. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. The JW Player was an interim step, Spanfeller said. 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. 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. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. 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 . (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.) Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. 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. 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. When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. 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. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. 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. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. 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. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. You wrote a 'story,'" Spanfeller recalled telling staff. [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. 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. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee told Deadspin. (check all that apply). It was four days old. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. 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. Spanfellers all-staff email went on to accuse Deadspins staff of bias and cast doubt on the motives behind the story. Both lawsuits detail discrimination personally faced or witnessed by the plaintiffs from Jim Spanfeller, who became CEO of G/O Media in April after private equity firm Great Hill acquired Gizmodo . It wasnt collaborative.. 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. 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. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. In an email read to Deadspin, McAvoy agreed that she was qualified for the role and said he would talk with Spanfeller to ensure she was interviewed for the new opportunity, which had not been posted publicly. 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. 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. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. But those efforts did not go very far, the people said, and the company has yet to mount a takeover. The detection of possible errors in a person's voter record as well as instructions on how to update it. 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. 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. As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. I read that she's a registered Republican in Texas. [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". A week after Spanfeller insisted to Varietythat 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 editorial director Susie Banikarim. 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.. Three and a half hours later, Maidment sent an email to Greenwell and me with the subject line, Reporting on ourselves. The body of the message read: This is a tradition that makes no sense. I have stood up for and advocated for my team since the day I started at G/O. The Daily Meal Founder G/O Media Chief Executive Officer Board and Advisor Roles Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 3 Number of Past Board & Advisor Roles 2 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. 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. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? Shortly after Spanfellers email was made public, Deadspin editor-in-chief Megan Greenwell issued a statement in response to his accusations that the reporting process was unfair: We are in an ongoing reporting process and planning to publish the story when it is ready. 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. 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. Having done it at Forbes, I simply knew it could be done quickly and with incremental value to the company.. Both lawsuits detail discrimination personally faced or witnessed by the plaintiffs from Jim Spanfeller, who became CEO of G/O Media in April after private equity firm Great Hill acquired Gizmodo Media Group. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. Use this information as you see fit. These men, and others who now hold C-suite positions at the company, were each hired without a public recruitment process, and several were installed over high-ranking women who had been successfully performing those jobs at the company for years. 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. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. 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 . Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. Soon after Flanagan started, other members of the sales team began to question his ability to do the job he was hired forspecifically, his ability to represent the websites and the company mission. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. And I didnt know what Sean was doing. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. 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. A G/O Media spokesperson said the company plans to grow the 174-person editorial headcount to 200 by the end of the first quarter next year. "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 . Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. 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. The other is still in college.. "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. Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. 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. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. 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. 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. 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.. When Jim Spanfeller and a private equity firm called Great Hill Partners took over G/O Mediaformerly Gizmodo Media Groupin April, their stated goal was to make the company profitable. But before a formal interview process could take place, Spanfeller filled the jobs with his ex-colleagues. 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. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. 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. 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.. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. 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. 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. 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. 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. "We have billions of dollars available to go out and buy and make this a bigger company, and that would really be our desire," Gaffney said. 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. 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.". I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. Views. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. 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). in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. (Spanfeller denies this claim.). 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. Steve Riley on February 14, 2013: Just right off the bat. 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. 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. Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Views. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. 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. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580.