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. 4. At the same time, working with the EICs to set a general editorial direction is clearly in the purview of any owner.). This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience?, My management was straight-up scared of him, said a staffer who worked at the site for two years and had responsibilities on both the editorial and marketing sides of the company. 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. 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. In addition to clichs like we are ambitious and be passionate and have fun, the fifth value on the list said, We will be at our best when we embrace many different perspectives and experiences. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). 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). 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. He would stop into peoples offices with the doors open and scream at them, so everyone knew what was going on., 5. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. 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. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. 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. On July 25, a pop-up survey appeared on Deadspin asking three questions: How satisfied are you with Deadspin? Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. 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. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. Voter Registration Records [7], Spanfeller was named associate publisher and senior vice president of marketing of Playboy Enterprises in April 1989. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn 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. 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. 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. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. 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. Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. Jim Spanfeller - Big Think Political affiliation. 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. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. All rights reserved. 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.. Jim Spanfeller, Its hard to imagine what one would not like on that list of items, Reibstein said of the third question. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. [12], Spanfeller took over as CEO of G/O Media when Great Hill Partners purchased the company, formerly known as Gizmodo Media Group, and The Onion from Univision on April 8, 2019, and combined the companies. Jim Spanfeller . In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. 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. Youre not qualified. That is absurd. 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. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. Jim Spanfeller Biography | Booking Info for Speaking Engagements Employees across editorial, sales, and tech have left, but many of these positions, even mission-critical ones, have not been filled. 4 Dumb Ways Your Favorite Sites Are Dying | Cracked.com Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. 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. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. Spanfeller said the company hopes to expand into areas like travel, music, business, and news. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. The G/O Media union sent the following statement regarding the survey: The GMG Union has made repeated good-faith efforts to cooperate with management in resolving the many outstanding issues currently facing the company, from workplace accessibility to a video player that lacks viable metrics. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. 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. "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. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records. 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. Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter Unlike private equity investors who financially engineer acquisitions, burdening companies they buy with debt and massive . 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. 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! G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. 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. Im kind of a tipsy at a bar in Paris, she added. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. 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 each site. 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. 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. Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review When Rogers was hired less than a week after McAvoy told the SVP that she would be able to interview for the job, she said, she realized that he must have been chosen well before. Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post 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. [1] 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. 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. 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. 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. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. 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. Mr. McAvoy was clear to me on his opinion that he did not think she was the right choice at this time, Spanfeller said. 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. 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. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. During those meetings, Maidments ideaswhich included commissioning an editor outside the company to review and approve stories written by about the companywere met with unanimous opposition. 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. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. We shall have a discussion on the policy at the next EiCs leads meeting. 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. I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. 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 . 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. 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired.