"We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. "We remain optimistic that our labor will be taken into consideration as this period of financial promise collides with a time that has been particularly rough on morale," the Onion Union statement said. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. Before he started full time in early June, Flanagan was brought in as a consultant just after Spanfeller took over G/O Media. He started screaming at me, Who told you you were allowed to speak about audience? As I said in the article, some of the celebs I mentioned could have changed their political leanings. 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. 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. We may earn a commission from links on this page. The digital media and blogging network, which oversees websites like Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jezebel, A.V. Page 1 of 9,554,641. At an all-staff meeting this week, Knight told Spanfeller that August 15 is the target completion date, which Spanfeller told Deadspin he believes is achievable. 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 . Why Ketanji Brown Jackson Split With the Courts Liberals in a 54 Decision, the firing of beloved editor Barry Petchesky, According to Great Hill Partners website, increasingly insisted on directing editorial coverage. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. I can see why. 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. Hes trying to micromanage, the tech employee said last week. View Jim Spanfeller's professional profile on LinkedIn. 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. Senior vice president of marketing Bruce Rogers, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes. The company is also on the hunt for acquisitions, according to Spanfeller. Legal review is often a lengthy process involving multiple reads, so talking to a lawyer is certainly not an indication that we would publish without completing the reporting process. A source at the company familiar with the situation said Thompsons hire had been flagged to upper management as a potential problem. The confusion stems from a lack of communication. 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. (check all that apply). 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. 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. They include: (Spanfeller declined to be interviewed in person but answered emailed questions. [] While it is what we did at Forbes that has nothing to do with the reason to do it here. In addition to the annoying ads, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller also wants Kotaku to only write about video games. Club executive editor Laura M. Browning and former A.V. 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. . The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. I hold myself to a high regard and ensuring that Im respectful to others and create a community of camaraderie, hire for diversity, and that there is a work life balance, she told Deadspin. Well keep fighting for whats right. In one instance in which Spanfeller tried to promote a woman within the company, his offer came with strings attached. So Out of Touch: Gen Z Congressman-Elect Mocks RNC Tweet Criticizing Him For His Housing Woes. When confronted with this negative feedback, Spanfeller insisted that he cannot be sexist because he has daughters. In April, the tech team was told to move the companys video operations off of MCP, which Univision paid for to host video content, and onto JW Player, a cheaper video system. 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. 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. There are regions that were within my scope of responsibilities and within my role that I cannot call on and neither can my team.. He did not answer a question about whether he was aware that a female VP was already leading west coast sales or that he installed a man (who also carries a VP title) above her. The differences were as granular as whether to call published pieces "blogs" or "stories." On Glassdoor, a website where current and former employees can submit anonymous reviews of their workplaces, reviews of The Daily Meal are overwhelmingly negative. 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. 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. The other is still in college., Four of nine major hires have been women, Spanfeller said. All rights reserved. About their hires, he wrote, I introduced Steve and Lance to Mike McAvoy, but I did not make the hires. 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. I was sorry and that is accurate, he said. Gov. Spanfeller Hired Media Friends/Former Colleagues to Fill G/O Media Roles Just After Claiming He Had No Plans for Major Turnover. Three and a half hours later, Maidment told us to put the story on ice, but both Spanfeller and Maidment maintain that Spanfeller never explicitly or implicitly directed the story to be killed. Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma. Spanfellers executive assistant set up a time for us to meet. I told him I had a few questions Id like to ask him, and asked if he had any availability for a meeting the following day. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. "You can write a blog, just don't publish them here.". 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. Spanfeller admitted he contacted Maidment in June after receiving my initial email requesting an interview. Spanfeller declined to answer a question about whether he expressed these sentiments to Klancnik. 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). G/O Media, from a business perspective, has turned a corner, Spanfeller says. He credited The Root for its journalism on the Black Lives Matter movement. "People are scared of him. 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. At the same time we are still exploring all options to get this work done by August 15th.. Additionally, Jim Spanfeller has had 6 past jobs including CEO at Forbes. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com
Six days after the SVPs exchange with McAvoy, Spanfeller sent an email to the entire staff announcing G/O Medias new company values. This sites credibility is not dependent on who and what it reports on, but on its ability to report forcefully and accurately. And I didnt know what Sean was doing. 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. 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. 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 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. I Close-Read the 113-Page Complaint Trying to Ban the Abortion Pill in Texas. 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 leading digital publisher producing category leaders The Daily Meal and The Active Times. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. Katie then refused to assume the HR lead role around other wider layoffs at the company. Oberlander actually left last week. 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. It also wasnt communicated to me as a promotion until the day it was emailed out to the company.. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from Univision. 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. Like many media companies, G/O Media's advertising business was battered by the pandemic. Email us. 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.