jim spanfeller political affiliation

(Pontius left the company.) "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 . 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. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION are core to our culture, and we expect all staff to advance and promote that. Heartened, the SVP emailed Spanfeller to remind him of their meeting in April and express her hope that women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBTQ would be considered as he hired his leadership team, and to say that she looked forward to discussing her role in the organization. Flanagan volunteered to go first, and what followed wasnt overwhelmingly inspiring, as one sales employee who was at the meeting put it: Flanagan read word for word what was on the slides, two people present confirmed. That union also opposes G/O Media's recent requirement to return to in-person work. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. 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. 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). [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. 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 . View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. These conversations reveal that Spanfellers biggest effect on the company since taking over has been a deflation of morale. 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 . 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. The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. 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.. Use this information as you see fit. 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. Have a tip we should know? The four women who Spanfeller counts as major hires include two he hired (head of talent and deputy counsel); one he promoted from within to executive managing editor; and a yet-to-be-filled position he says he plans to offer to a woman. 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. 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. 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. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. Jim Spanfeller . [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! 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. 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? Several high-ranking employees have left the company over the past three months, departments have been stretched thin, and those who remain say that Spanfellers micromanaging and inappropriate interference has hamstrung their ability to effectively do their jobs. 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. 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 Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. Republican Strategist Goes Scorched Earth on CPAC Scam, Rips Professional Grassroots Huckster Wing of the GOP, Biden Has Worked More Days Than Congress: Fox Newss Jesse Watters Mocks House GOP Schedule, Nothingburger Probes, CPAC Crowd Stands and Cheers as Raging Steve Bannon Vows to Bring Down Fox News: Were Going To Fight You Every Step Of The Way!, Florida Bill Requiring Bloggers to Register with Government Wont Survive Court Challenge, Says UF Law Prof, CPAC Crowd Cheers Wildly as Matt Gaetz Demands Congress Defund Federal Law Enforcement, They Are Lying: Tucker Carlson Reveals Why He Will Air Hidden Surveillance Jan 6th Footage Next Week, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Please Just Shut the Hell Up: Michael Steele Tells Fool Congresswoman She Has No Clue, Former Federal Prosecutor Says Rupert Murdoch Agreed with The Worst Possible Sentence in His Deposition, CNN Anchor Asks Chuck Schumer If Democratic Senators Should Still Go On Fox News In Light of Dominion Revelations, DeSantis Snaps at Reporter When Pressed On What He Would Do Differently From Biden in Ukraine, Elon Musk Blames Media for Being Racist Against Whites & Asians in Defense of Scott Adams Racist Comments, WATCH: Malcolm Nance Lashes Out at Trump MAGA Cultists In Congress Who Literally Stand for Genocide, Musks Twitter is Failing to Remove Child Porn, Even Some of the Easiest to Detect and Eliminate: NY Times Analysis, Right-Wing Twitter Mocks MSNBC Clip on Racist Alt-Right Memes Except Its 5 Years Old. 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. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. 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. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. 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. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! 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. 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. I think it's all good," said Chris Gaffney, co-founder and managing partner at Great Hill. Or knowledgeable writers?, Asked about the survey, Rogers said he thinks its responses will accurately and fully reflect Deadspin readers opinions of the site. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. The detection of possible errors in a person's voter record as well as instructions on how to update it. ), Spanfeller described the situation differently. 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 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. New York City. 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. It is ridiculous to launch a management survey questioning the editorial value of the site. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. 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. 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. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. . Its everything Ive wanted and more.. Think Youre Smarter Than a What Next Producer? Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). That evening, the woman received an email from McAvoy telling her that the SVP of marketing job had been filled with someone who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. 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 anti-herb agenda is being suppressed.. Mike hired Steve, and Steve hired Lance after conducting a process around each hire. Great Hill Partners vice president Eric Ahlgren and managing partner Chris Gaffney did not respond to Deadspins emailed questions. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. Im sorry that Mike didnt more clearly convey the information to me., McAvoy said, Jim has a different recollection of the facts., The SVP said she told Spanfeller that she wasnt the only person who noticed this pattern of hiring his former colleagues over women at the company, and that he should be prepared to address it. (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. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. 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. 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. 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. 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. As with any reporting process, we asked questions intending to incorporate the answers. Sources say the meeting concluded with an agreement that the best course of action would be to explain to Spanfeller why the player would not be finished by August 15. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. 15 Life Hacks That Are Actually Pretty Good 17,580. It wasnt collaborative.. No media company does. I was unclear about what she did. Vice president for west coast sales Steve Thompson, who worked with Spanfeller at, Vice president for east coast sales Sean Flanagan, who worked with Spanfeller at. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. 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. From a womans perspective, I did feel very belittled. They are parti pris, which is why the overwhelming majority do not do so and many will not even report on rivals for the same reason. When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. That distinction quickly sparked backlash in late 2019, when the staff of Deadspin resigned over the firing of a top editor and the company's mandate that the site stick to covering sports. (check all that apply). I can see why. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 2001-2009. His skin got bright red, she said. (Spanfeller says this is inaccurate and that he did consider other candidates for the editorial director role, but Paul quickly rose to the top after he expressed an interest in the position.) Three of the men Spanfeller hired were installed over successful women who had been at the company for years. On July 9, he hired Faiza Javaid as deputy general counsel, a position that was posted publicly. 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. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. 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). 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. Its something that Im working to improve. And I didnt know what Sean was doing. 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. 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. 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. [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. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. 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. 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. Find Out With This Weeks News Quiz. 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. Ultimately, the issue of building a wall has raised political risk, Cramer said. It was placed there without consultation or even simple communication to anyone on Deadspins staff. 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.. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. Spanfeller said he did not recall the specific request. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. "[17], "Great Hill Partners Agrees to Acquire Gizmodo Media Group", "Great Hill Partners Acquires Gizmodo Media Group", "President & CEO, Jim Spanfeller Named as IAB Chairman", "Alumni Album: Helping Us Connect to the Web", "Advertising; 4 Young Executives On Move at Newsweek", "Playboy Hires 2 New Execs; Title of Publisher Goes to 1", "New Gizmodo boss Jim Spanfeller is an old school digital media vet", "After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit", "Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On", "The Media-Sensational Rise and Fall of "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb", "GMG Union votes no confidence in G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jim_Spanfeller&oldid=1074755870, This page was last edited on 2 March 2022, at 00:52. "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. Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. , in respect of a candidate, means the name of the political party that has endorsed him or her or the word "independent", as the case may be, included in the nomination paper in accordance with subparagraph 66 (1) (a) (v). While we were given a 3pm deadline today to respond to dozens of questions, I understand that the folks at Deadspin have already submitted their story for legal review and plan to publish it on Wednesday all without ever seeing any of the responses to the questions that they asked. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. John Taggart for The Washington Post / Getty Images. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said the company would become "nicely profitable" by the end of the year, after it's been . 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. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. 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. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. 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. [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. 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. As for why that move was never announced, Spanfeller told Deadspin he believed Mike McAvoy would announce Rogers arrival, even though Spanfeller hired Rogers and he has announced other hires across the company since taking over. (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.). 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. 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.

Cessnock Police News, Corbett Maths Simplifying Algebraic Expressions, Articles J

jim spanfeller political affiliation

jim spanfeller political affiliation