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. Celebrities Who Are Republicans/Conservatives - HubPages Spanfeller also said that he did not ask Katie to fire Susie, only to be in the room while I had the conversation about Susies future with the company., Spanfeller ended up firing Banikarim himself, and then, months later, hiring Angela Persaud for the chief talent officer job after a public search. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller Tells Employees to 'Brace for Impact' of Jim has a different recollection of the facts, McAvoy reiterated. Asked about the contract, Spanfeller responded, I firmly believe in editorial integrity. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. As traffic dipped and employees headed for the exits, staffers at the company wrote a letter to Great Hill asking that Spanfeller be replaced as CEO. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). I was unclear about what she did. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. In an email, Flanagan disagreed with those assessments: Simply not true. In addition to poor planning and communication around the video player, multiple sources say Spanfeller wouldnt allow the tech team to implement video tracking analytics on JW Player, so no one had any idea how many views videos were getting. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. On Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees can submit anonymous reviews of their workplaces, reviews of The Daily Meal are overwhelmingly negative. 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. Steve Thompson, 55, was installed over a female vice president who had been running west coast sales for two and a half years. WV Gov. Justice switching political parties, returning to GOP 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. 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. 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. "We needed to change a lot of things, and change is hard.". When she tried to edit the post, she was greeted by the following image: Attempts to create a new post were similarly thwarted. Its Extremely Revealing. 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. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. While G/O Media has often placed importance on diversity among their staff and in their coverage, these executive-level jobs went to white males. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. Internet Life, a joint publication of Ziff-Davis and Yahoo!. "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 . Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. 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. I think it makes him a bad role model for the rest of his team.. When Spanfeller Offered to Promote a Woman to a Top Position, He Insisted She Fire a Female Editorial Director Should She Accept the Job. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Political party affiliation trends based on location. 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. Answering a similar one, he seemed to contradict himself: This concern was expressed to me and I take it very seriously. Takeaways From Deadspin's Expos of G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller 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. It was four days old. Who doesnt like uncompromising commentary or sports stories you couldnt find anywhere else? [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". 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. (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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. He sits on the Board of Directors of The New York Chapter of The National Foundation for Teaching . The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. 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. Jim Spanfeller Biography. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. The post, published Tuesday evening, proved wildly popular on Twitter. 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! Deadspin Is ZombifiedBut Gawker's Content Warriors Fight On 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. Though neither Spanfeller nor Knight provided the team a hard deadline, they made clear that they wanted the task, which should have taken months, completed in a matter of weeks. 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. 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 company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. 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. 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. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. These vacant roles have yet to be filled and Spanfeller has not announced an interim editor. 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? We sent a request for an explanation and did not receive a response. 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. 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. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. 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. So put this piece on ice. 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. 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. 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. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. Everyone can seeit on the pageor at least, everyone could see it before the censorship. 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 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. It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. "Jim Spanfeller Is a Herb": The rise and fall of a blog post. Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of ), The internal reaction to these hires has ranged from confusion to anger. What's happening at Deadspin is a travesty | The Outline The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. I am a father of three wonderful woman. Voter Registration Records Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. My territory has been cut in half. Jim Spanfeller (@JimSpanfeller) / Twitter He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. 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. Jack Crosbie, a former Splinter contractor and co-owner of Discourse, said that traffic declined at Splinter because G/O did not refill lost positions. This guy just seems like he doesnt like women, another added. Six of these hires were Spanfellers colleagues from his previous jobs at Forbes, Playboy, and Ziff Davis. 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. 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. In 1964, Spanfeller recieved the title of Artist of the Year from the Artists Guild of New York. 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. Opinion | A clash of values at former Gawker Media sites I think the thing thats most strange about it is that they didnt coordinate with the editorial side of the business. 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. [14] A subsequent Deadspin post mocked Spanfeller as a "herb"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. 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. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. Computing. Former SVP of sales and operations Kurt Mueller had left the company, and McAvoy told the woman Spanfeller was hiring his replacement. Or as Carmichael explained, If you dont know what a herb is, youre probably a herb.. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. 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. Youre not qualified. 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. Ex-Deadspin EIC Jim Rich resigns in latest turmoil at G/O Media Views. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." During Jim Spanfeller's younger years, he lived in Pennsylvania and recieved his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1952 from the Philladelphia Academy of the Fine Arts. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. 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. "People are scared of him. Justice announced he was switching his party affiliation . I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. I am and will continue to be a very strong advocate for my team.. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn Political affiliation means the state of belonging to or endorsing any political party. This Is How Things Work Now At G/O Media - Deadspin (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.) In early April, Great Hill Partners, a private-equity firm, acquired Gizmodo Media Groupa collection of sites, formed from the assets of the old Gawker, that included Jezebel, Lifehacker, and Deadspinas well as The Onion, a satirical news site, reportedly at a fire-sale price.The company, renamed G/O Media, installed Jim Spanfeller, formerly of Forbes.com, Playboy, and Ziff Davis, as CEO. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? (The people I work for and the people who report to me know what I do, Rogers, 63, told Deadspin in an email.).
Lyon Auction Kissimmee Florida 2021,
Venus In Gemini Marriage,
James Olofintuyi Age,
William Shue Obituary,
Articles J