{"id":298446,"date":"2021-07-14T03:15:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T00:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/deadspin-onion-owner-g-o-media-faces-new-staff-woes-discrimination-suit\/"},"modified":"2021-07-14T03:15:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T00:15:20","slug":"deadspin-onion-owner-g-o-media-faces-new-staff-woes-discrimination-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/deadspin-onion-owner-g-o-media-faces-new-staff-woes-discrimination-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"#Deadspin, Onion owner G\/O Media faces new staff woes, discrimination suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Deadspin, Onion owner G\/O Media<\/a> faces new staff woes, discrimination suit<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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G\/O Media, the digital media outfit that saw the entire editorial staff of Deadspin walk out in 2019, continues to grapp<\/a>le with staffing issues, Media Ink has learned. <\/p>\n

As this columnist reported on Friday, G\/O Media\u2019s editorial director, Jim Rich, abruptly resigned in a move that even caught the company\u2019s CEO, James Spanfeller, off guard. <\/p>\n

Now sources say Rich\u2019s exit was just the tip of the iceberg at the media company as it sufferers from editorial churn and fights an explosive discrimination and retaliation lawsuit by a former top executive. <\/p>\n

Two G\/O sites \u2014 AV Club and the company\u2019s flagship site Gizmodo \u2014 have been without an editor-in-chief for more than a month, sources said. Insiders estimate that G\/O needs to fill at least 15 open editorial jobs out of about 150. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, G\/O continues to battle a Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed late last year by laid-off company executive Katherine Pontius Ebel, who claims CEO Spanfeller \u201ctook control of creative, successful diverse brands like the Onion and transformed them into a business run exclusively by a clique of his white male friends and colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Jim
Former G\/O Media Editorial Director Jim Rich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

G\/O counters that it is \u201coutperforming our 2021 goals in terms of profitability and reader engagement\u201d and that it is hiring across all departments, including editorial. It also denies Pontius Ebel\u2019s claims, which it is fighting in court. <\/p>\n

Pontius Ebel says she spent eight years at satirical website the Onion\u00a0when\u00a0<\/strong>Univision sold it along with a dozen other sites to G\/O Media\u2019s financial backers, private equity company Great Hill Partners, in April 2019. <\/p>\n

After the sale to Great Hill, Spanfeller offered Pontius Ebel a promotion to chief talent officer of the entire company, the suit claims. But, according to the lawsuit, the promotion was withdrawn after Pontius Ebel objected to Spanfeller\u2019s move to\u00a0let go of EVP and Gizmodo Media Editorial Director Susie Banikarim, one of the few female executives and the only woman of color at the company. <\/p>\n

Banikarim was laid off as part of larger cuts at Gizmodo shortly after the acquisition and joined Vice Media as editorial director by the end of 2019.<\/p>\n

Spanfeller then withdrew the chief talent officer job, leaving her with a diminished role at the Onion, the lawsuit said. A few months later she was fired. <\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, former chief of staff and chief revenue officer of the Onion\u2026could not join Spanfeller\u2019s exclusive boys club leadership team because she is a woman and stood up against the discrimination that was beginning to pervade the organization she loved,\u201d claims the suit filed by Julia Elmaleh Sachs of Crumiller P.C., one of the attorneys representing Pontius Ebel. The law firm bills itself as \u201cThe Feminist Litigation Firm.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Deadspin
Deadspin employees work in their Manhattan office in 2018 \u2014 before the turmoil that took place the following year.<\/figcaption>
The Washington Post via Getty Im<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Pontius Ebel is suing for lost wages, damages and intentional infliction of emotional distress. <\/p>\n

\u201cG\/O is confident that its claims against Pontius will be substantiated and that her claims against the company will be dismissed,\u201d the company said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cG\/O Media is extremely proud of its ongoing commitment to grow and foster diversity, equity and inclusion which is heavily supported by the company\u2019s leadership,\u201d the company said, claiming that \u201cmore than half of the company\u2019s management positions are held by diverse incumbents, including women.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"James
G\/O Media CEO James Spanfeller<\/figcaption>
Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

G\/O lobbed a countersuit at Pontius Ebel claiming she breached her fiduciary duties and her employment agreement. A judge has tossed the company\u2019s counterclaims, but the company said it plans to file an amended complaint against her this week. <\/p>\n

Rich, a two-time editor-in-chief of the Daily News<\/a>, joined G\/O first as the editor-in-chief of Deadspin in November 2019 following a mass exodus of the site\u2019s editorial staff due to top brass trying to keep writers from covering topics beyond the sports. <\/p>\n

He did a good enough job to get promoted to editorial director of the company\u2019s remaining 11 sites in May, even as the sports world that was the subject of Deadspin coverage came to a screeching halt last March due to COVID-19 lockdowns. <\/p>\n

Asked why resigned, he said, \u201cI had ongoing disagreements with upper management and it made it impossible for me to do my job.\u201d He declined further comment. <\/p>\n

But one insider said Spanfeller \u201cis an incredible spendthrift about everything\u2026If you have someone nickel and diming critical headcount, [it is] impossible to get anything done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another insider called Spanfeller a \u201cmicromanager\u201d who constantly bigfoots his top managers and executives in editorial and other areas of the company \u2014 even going so far as to question the cost of napkins and silverware at company-sponsored events.<\/p>\n

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\"ESPN
Some reports speculate Jim Rich left over fallout from a story on ESPN analyst Maria Taylor, above, who was the subject of disparaging remarks by network reporter Rachel Nichols. <\/figcaption>
NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Insiders also complained that Spanfeller and the head of HR, Angela Persaud, have slowed down the process of filling about 15 open editorial jobs.<\/p>\n

In the case of Rich, it culminated in a shouting match between the editorial director and CEO on Friday afternoon, sources said. Rich suddenly resigned on the spot. <\/p>\n

Some reports on Rich\u2019s departure speculated that it had to do with a story about ESPN sideline reporter and host Rachel Nichols making disparaging remarks about the talent of Maria Taylor, a black woman that ESPN moved to host of the 2020 NBA finals. <\/p>\n

\"In
In another 2018 photo, a Deadspin worker shows off the publication\u2019s logo.<\/figcaption>
The Washington Post via Getty Im<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Deadspin had a segment of the leaked video, but did not report on the racial overtones. The New York Times obtained the video one year after the Deadspin story, written by Rich, failed to mention the racial angle and instead played up the invasion of privacy concerns, labeling the Nichols colleague who had leaked the video \u201ca creep.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the company attributed the split to a \u201cclash of management style\u201d but said the flap over the ESPN story \u201cdid not play a role.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rich, meanwhile, told Media Ink that he and Spanfeller \u201cnever had a discussion about the story.\u201d And he added of that story that he had just \u201cfour minutes of a 20 minute tape.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the information we had \u2026 I\u2019d probably write the same story today,\u201d he said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Deadspin, Onion owner G\/O Media faces new staff woes, discrimination suit” G\/O Media, the digital media outfit that saw the entire editorial staff of Deadspin walk out in 2019, continues to grapple with staffing issues, Media Ink has learned. As this columnist reported on Friday, G\/O Media\u2019s editorial director, Jim Rich, abruptly resigned in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":298447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/deadspin-turmoil-173.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[111736,111592,70446,4935,111813],"class_list":["post-298446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-13-21","tag-deadspin","tag-lawsuits","tag-media-ink","tag-the-onion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}