I never changed my mind. Head of The Onion, Deadspin sued for sex discrimination - New York Post It laid off 14 staffers in the summer of 2020. 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. 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. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. 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. (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.) G/O Media workers went on strike today in part to protect remote work. 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. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. The Daily Meal Founder G/O Media Chief Executive Officer Board and Advisor Roles Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 3 Number of Past Board & Advisor Roles 2 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. 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. 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. [12][13], In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. 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.. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. 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. Mr. Spanfeller has a BA in English Literature from Union College, Schenectady, New York. When one reviews the actual questions one might feel even more uneasy. 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. 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. Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. 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. McAvoy told her she would be able to interview for a bigger role, she said, only to follow up a few weeks later and say that Rogers had been hired. 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. 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. Mad Money Twitter - Jim . Search over 95 Million Voter Registration Records 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. (Pontius left the company.) The takeover of G/O Media, previosuly known as Gizmodo Media Group and Gawker Media, by former Forbes executive Jim Spanfellercontinues to throttle downhill, as one of the companys news sites, Deadspin, published a scathing expos on Friday detailing a litany of problems employees have faced since investment firm Great Hill purchased Gizmodo and placed Spanfeller in control. Another former Daily Meal staffer said that management was straight-up scared of Spanfeller, adding, I can see why. 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. While cleaning house and bringing in some trusted former colleagues is not entirely uncommon in private-equity acquisitions, Spanfeller filled nearly his entire top layer of management without any public recruitment process; the only woman hired as a department head, head of talent Angela Persaud, was also the only person at that level whose job was posted publicly. 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. 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 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'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. 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. [9], In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! Without posting the jobs publicly, Spanfeller hired a stable of white men to fill executive positions overseeing nearly every facet of the company., You also had no interest in meeting the only woman on the revenue leadership team who is an SVP who has been successful., As the only woman on the previous revenue leadership team, I started to wonder if women were being considered for leadership roles., What Spanfeller says is normal is, of course, a reflection of his own values, which evidently rank transparency, diversity, and inclusion as secondary concerns to financial success., The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey., Chief financial officer Tom Callahan, who worked at Forbes while Spanfeller worked there. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Jim Spanfeller discover inside connections to recommended . 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. Clashes between the Gawker Media editorial culture and the company's new private equity owner seemed inevitable from the start. Gaffney and Spanfeller said that G/O Media is looking for acquisitions itself. Still, tensions between management and staff are high at the company as it prepares to enter negotiations with the G/O Media editorial union, one of the two unions representing editorial workers at the company. I was disappointed. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. A voter's representatives in government. We have no credibility in writing about ourselves. He said the company was just profitable before the pandemic hit its business, and is now comfortably back in the black. This is normal in situations like these where a new group is coming in and is facing a near term challenge.. A longtime digital media veteran, Spanfeller was an unconventional choice to lead the new Gizmodo Media Group sites (The Daily Beast's CEO, Heather Dietrick, once served as president of the . 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. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. Youre not qualified. [7], Spanfeller was named associate publisher and senior vice president of marketing of Playboy Enterprises in April 1989. We shall have a discussion on the policy at the next EiCs leads meeting. 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. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. 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. 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. "I think that most media company CEOs probably are as involved as I am," Spanfeller said. She told Deadspin she was surprised that Spanfeller seemed to know little about her team, which last year won Digidays best content studio award.. Text. Now that we are closer to stabilizing the company, there can be a more deliberate recruitment and hiring process. Holle Abee (author) from Georgia on February 14, 2013: Duff performed at W's inauguration. [1] He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN). 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. Announcing Persauds hire on July 10, Spanfeller wrote this of the process: After a very fulsome search where we interviewed dozens of qualified candidates we identified two finalists. 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. They requested anonymity to speak candidly but their identities are known to Insider. 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.. Asked about the contract, Spanfeller responded, I firmly believe in editorial integrity. My management style has been widely reported on over the years and the picture you are painting does not comport with that. I have definitely given positive feedback to numerous women, including senior executives in edit, sales, and marketing, he offered instead. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. . 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. 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. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. "[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. 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. 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. G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. From a womans perspective, I did feel very belittled. "We were a leftist site, not a liberal one, which gives you a sense of how closely Spanfeller followed our work," he said. (10 is very satisfied, 1 is very unsatisfied); What do you like MOST about Deadspin? "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". Well keep fighting for whats right. 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. 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.. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Jim Spanfeller - New York, New York, United States - LinkedIn The union said that it wants the money to translate into higher salary minimums, trans-inclusive healthcare, and a focus on talent retention. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. In one case, sources say Spanfeller did offer to promote a woman to run human resources, but on the condition she fire another woman at the company as her first order of business. 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. [10] Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! 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. Popular Gaming Website Kotaku Might Be Going Away In Wake of 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. Spanfeller Media Group ( SMG ), a subsidiary of publishing company Tribune Publishing, is a digital media company based in New York City. 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. Spanfeller said no one told him that a female VP was already successfully performing that job before he hired Thompson. I realized that I wasnt communicating my advocacy for the department or our initiatives to upper management and other departments back to the team clearly enough. Ad revenue rebounded, Spanfeller told Insider last year. G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller says the company is profitable and ready The sales employee (who is not an SVP) wasnt surprised to hear that Spanfeller didnt know what she did. I think the biggest problem was the leadership wouldnt get out of the way of everyone, one former employee 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. In two cases, women asked for and were promised the opportunity to interview for executive-level positions for which they were qualified, only to see Spanfeller hire one of his former colleagues before they were given a chance to interview. I think it makes him a bad role model for the rest of his team.. Voter Registration Records 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. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." What's happening at Deadspin is a travesty | The Outline A leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. The appropriate thing to do would be to talk to the editorial side of the business and have a clear objective for the survey.. These actions are clearly management attempting to target, and even intimidate, staff into changing their editorial stance in spite of our contract-protected independence, especially as it comes on the heels of managements repeated attempts to kill this story as it was being reported about 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. , 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). Thats not reality, a tech staffer told Deadspin. WV Gov. Justice switching political parties, returning to GOP 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. Im shocked he would call that a good presentation, said the employee who was in the meeting. Political affiliation Definition | Law Insider Jim Spanfeller - CEO - G/O Media | LinkedIn Ive reached out to Spanfeller for comment multiple times over the past few days and have yet to hear back. It wasnt collaborative.. G/O Media lawsuits: Two former exec allege discrimination - CNN 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. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? Spanfeller told Insider that G/O Media plans to reinvest the profits into the business. 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. Oberlander actually left last week. 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. Jun 8, 2020, 7:03 AM. G/O is still wracked with internal tensions ahead of contract negotiations with one of its editorial unions. Another was more direct: Thats Jim wanting to be in control. Asked about the former employees accounts, Spanfeller said he has no idea what this refers to and it is not my recollection of working at The Daily Meal, adding that he doesnt recall screaming at anyone. 3. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016. Club managing editor Caitlin PenzeyMoog, who both resigned on July 12. 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. Jim Spanfeller @JimSpanfeller Founder of http://TheDailyMeal.comand http://TheActiveTimes.com. (check all that apply); and What do you like LEAST about Deadspin? 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.

Doxiepoo Puppies For Sale In Missouri, Scotsman Prodigy Ice Machine Slow Water Fill, Grailed Connect Paypal, 5th Engineer Special Brigade, Queenpins Real Characters, Articles J