This is the same thing that has also happened to Deadspin. Sole dedication to revenue, getting it the cheapest, quickest way possible. Have a tip we should know? Multiple sources say Pontius declined to go along with the plan, angering Spanfeller. Page 1 of 9,554,641. The next day she refused to join me in communicating our plans to Susie. 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. She asked McAvoy, then her immediate supervisor, for the opportunity to interview for the position, citing her leadership of the revenue division, her construction of a diverse team, and her renown in the industry. Asked for a response to the latter allegation, Spanfeller responded, That is absurd. One theory was that Spanfeller thought implementing analytics would take developer resources away from building the new video platform and player, though employees said implementing analytics is a relatively easy fix. 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. View details on more than 95 Million registered voters across the United States. In all of those cases Jim listened to my arguments and in many cases agreed with me and the issue was settled, he wrote in response to one question. 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.
G/O Media Workers Call on Owners to Replace CEO - WSJ 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. Indeed, two former G/O Media staffers blasted Spanfeller for being stingy with resources. Jim Justice speaks during President Donald Trump's political rally inside the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington on Thursday. 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. No media company does. In an email read to Deadspin, McAvoy agreed that she was qualified for the role and said he would talk with Spanfeller to ensure she was interviewed for the new opportunity, which had not been posted publicly. 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. 3. The job, however, came with a condition, they said: Pontiuss first order of business would be to fire newsroom editorial director Susie Banikarim. 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. Spanfeller Media is working to redefine content for the digital era. In other words, G/O media had effectively broken the redirect at Deadspin2.com, so that the site now redirected to a dead link. But as Spanfeller began to implement his vision, that hope was replaced by employee frustration and skepticism over his hiring practices and interference with the companys journalism. []. The G/O Media union sent the following statement regarding the survey: The GMG Union has made repeated good-faith efforts to cooperate with management in resolving the many outstanding issues currently facing the company, from workplace accessibility to a video player that lacks viable metrics. Who even told you you were allowed to think about audience? the woman alleged. [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. 2. 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. 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. 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. Spanfeller responded that he would be happy to get together, but did not say anything about open roles. Spanfeller said the goal was to find out what the key points of attraction are for our visitors.. Emma Carmichael is a friend of mine, and we both worked at Gawker Media and, as it was later named after being purchased by Univision, Gizmodo Media Group, or GMG. 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.
Gizmodo and The Onion's New Owner Lays Off 25, Including - TheWrap Among the multiple Gawker and/or GMG and/or G/O websites I wrote for was, for a brief stint, Deadspin, which is currently without a staff after every single one of its writers quit en masse following the firing of beloved editor Barry Petchesky, who is another friend of mine. Email us. 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. In conversations with Deadspin, more than 20 employees from across the business, tech, and editorial departments of 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. I am a father of three wonderful woman. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com
Clubs executive editor and managing editor, respectively, stepped down on July 12. Oh my God, thats so funny, Carmichael said when I informed her of this latest development. 4. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company. Reverse Phone Search Tool And much more all for free! Computing. 12-Year-Old Prankster Throws Dead Snake on Woman's Car and Gets Flattened by Husband 15,743. I was also hiring a good portion of these jobs before I actually took over day to day control of the company.
Deadspin's entire editorial staff is gone - The Washington Post 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. 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. Editorial director Paul Maidment, who worked with Spanfeller at Forbes and The Daily Meal. Spanfeller said that he wasnt preventing, just delaying analytics from being implemented, on the grounds that its not particularly useful information at the moment. (The day after Deadspin contacted Spanfeller for comment, the tech team was given the green light to roll out video analytics. The former staff of Splinter later launched the worker-owned Discourse Blog. "We closed Splinter because it was a liberal political site that was losing audience in the middle of a liberal moment," he said. "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 . 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. 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. I expect to be treated the way I treat people., This pattern played out three more times in Spanfellers first few months as CEO. Im not building a club, we are working to build a successful companyand that depends on great women and men.. That is absurd. The anger stems from Spanfellers apparent disregard for his own stated company values, which include a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, will start as editor-in-chief of Deadspin on Monday. James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American media executive best known for running Forbes.com from 20012009. 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.
Deadspin Editor Quits, Rails Against Bosses: 'I've Been Repeatedly Lied 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.
Jim Spanfeller - Wikipedia (Spanfeller told Deadspin that he and Callahan had only been in a single meeting that I recall.). Which he would do by turning Deadspin into a sports-only website. I found this troubling but was okay with it given the circumstances. In the meantime, Carmichael had her own message for Spanfeller: Congratulations on confirming your herb-ishness.. 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.