James J. Spanfeller Jr. is an American executive known for running Forbes.com from 2001 to 2009. He is currently the CEO of

G/O Media G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that owns and operates the digital media outlets '' Kotaku'' and '' The Root''. It was formed in 2019 after the private equity firm Great Hill Partners purchased two digital portfolios from ...

which consists primarily of sites that were previously part of

Gawker Media Gawker Media LLC (formerly Blogwire, Inc. and Gawker Media, Inc.) was an American internet media company and Link farm#Blog network, blog network. It was founded by Nick Denton in October 2003 as Blogwire, and was based in New York City. Incorpor ...

. Spanfeller was hired by private equity firm Great Hill Partners to run the company after it was purchased from

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

. He is also a past Chairman of the IAB (

Interactive Advertising Bureau The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an American advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents many of t ...

) and longtime executive board member of Digital Content Next (DCN).

Career

Spanfeller graduated from

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

with a B.A. in English Literature in 1979 and went to work as a reporter for the SoHo Weekly News. He soon switched to the business side of the paper, and later took a tour through Europe. Upon returning from Europe, Spanfeller took a position at AMP Marketing Systems. In 1984, Spanfeller was named publisher of Newsweek On Campus magazine. Just under two years later, Spanfeller was replaced as publisher by Scott Kauffman and became the national sales manager of Newsweek magazine in 1986. Spanfeller was named associate publisher and senior vice president of marketing of Playboy Enterprises in April 1989. In June 1993, Spanfeller became associate publisher for advertising at Inc. magazine, replacing Kristin Norrgard, who left to become publisher of Working Woman magazine. In 1996, Spanfeller left his job at Inc., where he had become publisher, to become publisher of Yahoo! Internet Life, a joint publication of

Ziff-Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servic ...

and

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

. Spanfeller was also responsible for advertising sales on the magazine's website and that of Yahoo! Computing.

Forbes.com

Spanfeller was employed by Forbes.com for 8 years from 2001 to 2009, when digital and print operations were run separately.

Daily Meal

In 2011, Spanfeller launched The Daily Meal with an estimated $2 million investment. The Daily Meal was acquired by Tronc in 2016.

G/O Media

Spanfeller took over as CEO of

when Great Hill Partners purchased the company, formerly known as

Gizmodo Media Group Gizmodo Media Group was an online media company and blog network formerly operated by Univision Communications (now TelevisaUnivision) in its Fusion Media Group division. The company was created from assets acquired from Gawker Media during its ...

, and ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is currently based in Chicago, but originated as a weekly print publication ...

'' from

on April 8, 2019, and combined the companies. 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. 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". A subsequent post on Kinja mocked Spanfeller as a "

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

"; after being widely shared on social media, G/O Media removed the post. In the Vanity Fair article, writer Joe Pompeo noted that "someone edited Spanfeller's Wikipedia entry to read 'Jim Spanfeller is a fart-faced fascist best known for running Forbes.com 2001-09.' (That language has since been scrubbed.)" In January 2020 the GMG union, which represents the staff of G/O media, announced a vote of no confidence in CEO Jim Spanfeller citing, among other issues, a lack of willingness to negotiate for "functional editorial independence protections."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanfeller, Jim American media executives Living people Year of birth missing (living people) SoHo Weekly News people