I had experience and confidence in the people who were hired. 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. 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. (The other woman on the executive leadership team, general counsel Lynn Oberlander, left the company this week.) I am a father of three wonderful woman. 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. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. When asked if it was inaccurate, then, to say she had accepted the job, Spanfeller did not respond. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Jim Spanfeller has 2 current jobs as Founder at The Daily Meal and Chief Executive Officer at G/O Media. That is absurd. Naturally, we were dismayed to discover one more problemthe survey placed on Deadspin. Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. They cant even pitch effectively, said another employee who was present. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. (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. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". The other is still in college.. 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. But after the staff meeting, sources say, members of the tech team held a meeting with Knight to explain why the date was unrealistic. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. So put this piece on ice. Jim Spanfeller Biography. And Fake. 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. We have also learned the tech team has been asked to post the survey again. I can see why. At least have everybody well briefed on this is what were doing and this is what wed like to learn from it, Reibstein said. 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. Jeremy Gordon Oct292019 03:41PM EST.
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller: Company Will Be Profitable by - Insider 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. Jim characterized that as a misunderstanding, she said. I was going on the input I had been given by Mike McAvoy that he had discussed the position with her and laid out why she was not ready for the larger role. . Page 1 of 9,554,641. 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).
G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller says the company is profitable and ready 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. Nearly two dozen current G/O Media employees spoke to Deadspin for this story. (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.) It has introduced real uncertainty in to stocks, and Trump's agenda has become shaky. He is currently the CEO of G/O Media which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of Gawker Media. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . 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. 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. 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). Political party affiliation trends based on location. "There's a fly and he's a swatter, and that's it," the former executive said. 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. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. [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". Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. 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. 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). (Spanfeller denies this claim.). 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. [1] I am and will continue to be a very strong advocate for my team.. To hear G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller tell it, everything at his digital media company is going great. [He] wasnt interested in hearing what someone with 20 years of experience would say.. Deadspin cited an account from a former writer at The Daily Meal, a food and beverage site that Spanfeller founded in 2015, who claims her former boss once started screaming at her because she voiced concerns about writing a story on the websites earning figures, which she felt she was not qualified for. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. I was unclear about what she did. (check all that apply). (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). "The fact that we could acquire it at a price that would make it one of our smallest investments is that good or bad?
4 Dumb Ways Your Favorite Sites Are Dying | Cracked.com I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. 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.
The mess at G/O Media - Columbia Journalism Review 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. 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. 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. Fuck Jim Spanfeller and Paul Maidment. "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. 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 . I never changed my mind. The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. His skin got bright red, she said.