4 ms·

I've read the comments to this news and I must ask: what's the matter with G/O Media?

cagenut 7y ago
there are about a hundred layers to that onion short version: they're a pirate-ship/skeleton-crew management team sent in to do a "turnaround" (or flip) on the former gawker media by a private equity firm. the way a friend put it is that they adopted a rescue pit bull that has already bitten its last two owners and they started slapping it. absolutely breathtaking in terms of how they loaded the gun, carefully took aim at their foot, and pulled the trigger 3 - 5 times. you can point to any one fight they got in and think it seems like the staff are pushing their luck, but the pattern of over and over again proving mgmt had no idea what they bought and have no idea how to handle it just serves as a shining case study in what bullshit artists most of these "turnaround management consultant private equity" firms are.
- mortenjorck 7y ago
  To anyone unfamiliar with G/O Media and Great Hill Partners, look up the phrase "Jim Spanfeller is a Herb." The story of Deadspin's extremely avoidable implosion is a debacle of private-equity mismanagement for the ages.
- plorg 7y ago
  So, to be clear, it went something like: * The Onion existed and spun out AV Club and ClickHole, all were great for awhile but there senior staff began a mass exodus in 2012-2013. * The above were bought by Univision. I believe by this point most of their senior staff had departed. * Univision acquires Gawker Media in a fire sale and folds it and The Onion properties into Gizmodo Media Group. The Onion properties are migrated to Kinja, a move the Gizmodo project manager described as being about integrating e-commerce tools (chiefly Amazon referral links) into the site content.[1] At some point in this phase the last of the old timers left. * Great Hill Partners bought Gizmodo Media Group and turned it into G/O Media [1] https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the-publishing-system-at-the-heart-of-gawker-lives-on-under-univision-update/ https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the-publishing...
donatzsky 7y ago
There's a good overview here: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/deathwatch-2020-trying-again-this-time-with-feeling/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/death...

there are about a hundred layers to that onion short version: they're a pirate-ship/skeleton-crew management team sent in to do a "turnaround" (or flip) on the former gawker media by a private equity firm. the way a friend put it is that they adopted a rescue pit bull that has already bitten its last two owners and they started slapping it. absolutely breathtaking in terms of how they loaded the gun, carefully took aim at their foot, and pulled the trigger 3 - 5 times. you can point to any one fight they got in and think it seems like the staff are pushing their luck, but the pattern of over and over again proving mgmt had no idea what they bought and have no idea how to handle it just serves as a shining case study in what bullshit artists most of these "turnaround management consultant private equity" firms are.

mortenjorck 7y ago
To anyone unfamiliar with G/O Media and Great Hill Partners, look up the phrase "Jim Spanfeller is a Herb." The story of Deadspin's extremely avoidable implosion is a debacle of private-equity mismanagement for the ages.
plorg 7y ago
So, to be clear, it went something like: * The Onion existed and spun out AV Club and ClickHole, all were great for awhile but there senior staff began a mass exodus in 2012-2013. * The above were bought by Univision. I believe by this point most of their senior staff had departed. * Univision acquires Gawker Media in a fire sale and folds it and The Onion properties into Gizmodo Media Group. The Onion properties are migrated to Kinja, a move the Gizmodo project manager described as being about integrating e-commerce tools (chiefly Amazon referral links) into the site content.[1] At some point in this phase the last of the old timers left. * Great Hill Partners bought Gizmodo Media Group and turned it into G/O Media [1] https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the-publishing-system-at-the-heart-of-gawker-lives-on-under-univision-update/ https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2017/kinja-the-publishing...

donatzsky 7y ago

There's a good overview here: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/deathwatch-2020-trying-again-this-time-with-feeling/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/death...