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.. 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). That is clearly evident when you note the poor syntax and galling bias of the questions. Jim Spanfeller Biography & Works of Art | Qart.com It definitely feels like its the old boys club, a G/O Media employee told Deadspin. Before we go any further, I feel compelled to acknowledge that nearly everything about this item is a conflict of interest. I was disappointed. 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). "We want to do it in a way that's a little more buttoned up," he said. We shall have a discussion on the policy at the next EiCs leads meeting. 4. 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. While the archived version of the post did not preserve the original images, you can view a PDF of the original post below. 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. 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. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. Political party affiliation trends based on location. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. 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. 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. 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. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. A voter's representatives in government. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. 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. pretty big scoop from me Jim Spanfeller is a herb https://t.co/gZDCs6mfhC. Jim Spanfeller Biography. 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. His skin got bright red, she said. 1. I told Mike, verbally and in writing, that I would be interested in taking on new responsibilities and opportunities within the organization and I would like to interview for whatever position would be a part of that, she told Deadspin. [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". Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. 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. This has led to some protest among employees, as one staffer told Deadspin, It definitely feels like its the old boys club. A second employee told the site, This guy just seems like he doesnt like women.. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. 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. Text. In late July, more than a month after the womans conversation with Spanfeller (and after the Daily Beast and New York Post published stories about his rocky early days at the company and he became aware of the reporting process for this story about his hiring practices), that same VP was given what management called a promotion, which Spanfeller noted in his responses to Deadspin, saying that she has been promoted to VP Marketing under Bruce Rogers with wider responsibilities., I am at the same level and performing the same duties now as I was before I got this supposed promotion, the VP said. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. []. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. 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. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. [11], Spanfeller ran Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately. 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. The only person that I was aware of that was calling directly on clients was an SVP at The Onion and that was to sell creative services, he said. 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. According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, in April Spanfeller offered the job of head of talent to Katie Pontius, who until recently was the chief of staff for The Onion, Inc. 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. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. Its something that Im working to improve. Lastly, I firmly believe, personally, that Jim Spanfeller is a herb. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. 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. [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. 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. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! 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. 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. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. Have a tip or story idea? [1] Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post The person hired was Bruce Rogers, who most recently ran the institute arm of SITO Mobile, a mobile data company. No media company does. What's happening at Deadspin is a travesty | The Outline It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. When people came in with good ideas they were rejected., A woman who was hired at The Daily Meal after responding to a Craigslist post said she was once asked to write a story about a companys earnings, which she felt she wasnt qualified to write and for which she didnt receive guidance from her editors. It was a welcome refrain for employees all too aware of how the company had languished under Univisions doomed ownership. I am a father of three wonderful woman, Spanfeller wrote in a statement. 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. 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. 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. Enter Jim "Herb" Spanfeller. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma. Youre not qualified. (The other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 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. 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. 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. Voting precincts and districts. 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 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. (Pontius left the company.) To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. 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. 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. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. (Deadspin reached out to 10 former Spanfeller employees at The Daily Meal; four consented to be interviewed, though all declined to be named because they fear retribution from Spanfeller or their current companies.) James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 20012009. Spanfeller Has an Alleged History of Screaming at Women Employees. 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. 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. Mr. Rich, who will report to G/O Media Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller, . 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. 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. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. 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. Stay up to date with what you want to know. 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. 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. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. Just two weeks after Spanfeller and Great Hill acquired the company, and less than a week after he said in an interview with Variety that he didnt expect any layoffs, Spanfeller fired 25 people across the 400-person company, including Susie Banikarim, GMGs widely respected editorial director, and the only person of color on the executive leadership team at the time. As the former publisher of National Geographic, Mens Health & Maximmy successful presentation & leadership skills are evident.. 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. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. On Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees can submit anonymous reviews of their workplaces, reviews of The Daily Meal are overwhelmingly negative. "You're not a 'blogger,' you're a professional journalist. Jim Spanfeller - Wikipedia "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad? Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. Its everything Ive wanted and more.. 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. A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records James J. Spanfeller is president of The Spanfeller Group, a management consultancy focusing on digital strategy, audience development, revenue acceleration and talent acquisition. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. 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. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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? 4 Dumb Ways Your Favorite Sites Are Dying | Cracked.com I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. 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! When asked if she stood by the content of the since-disappeared post, Carmichael remained steadfast: I did really careful, thorough research, and the evidence is there.