Gizmodo to be acquired for second time in 4 years
"Private equity firm Great Hill Partners has agreed to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision, forming a new company led by digital media exec Jim Spanfeller," reports the Wall Street Journal's Benjamin Mullin.
Here's the story: The new boss of GMG, Jim Spanfeller, plans to invest in paid content and e-commerce.https://t.co/pcx4YyTEeR
- Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) April 8, 2019
For the second time in four years, the former Gizmodo Media Group - home to both the eponymous tech site, as well as Deadspin, Jezebel, the Onion, the Root, and ClickHole, among others - has a new owner. Great Hill Partners, a private-equity firm based in Boston, has reached an agreement to purchase Gizmodo Media Group from Univision for what will likely be "much less than the $135 million Univision paid in 2016 to acquire most of the Gizmodo properties."
Wow.
The deal was previously reported by the WSJ as a potential option for GMG, so it doesn't come as a total shock, as NYMag's Madison Malone Kircher writes:
Also for the second time in as many years, the company will be getting a name-change. Gizmodo Media Group will henceforth know be known as G/O Media Inc. - a nod to Gizmodo and the Onion, both GMG properties. Its new boss will Jim Spanfeller, who's worked at Forbes.com, PC Magazine, and RealClearPolitics.
Spanfeller sent an email to his notoriously independent new staff this morning, saying he looks forward to meeting everyone soon and answering their (likely many) questions. Including ones about editorial independence: "While editorial independence is critically important, there needs to be a healthy and productive partnership with the business side for the company to be truly successful," Spanfeller wrote. "Without an audience we have nothing to offer advertisers, eCommerce partners or subscription efforts. And without the revenue from those sources we have no way to fund the content and those who create it that attracts that audience in the first place." He also explained he wants to establish a new set of company values and laid out a rough draft of his ideas. "Feel free to help make these better and perhaps more attuned to G/O Media."
Here we go.
I think we've all always wanted to see private-equity-owned-blogging-at-scale and by god we'll now get the chance https://t.co/BtkqkCf781
- Joshua Benton (@jbenton) April 8, 2019
Here's an excerpt from From Spanfeller's email:
We are action oriented. When faced with an option of action vs. in-action, we always choose to DO SOMETHING.
We believe in our people. We respect our teammates. We know that if they "do something" they will, much more often than not, DO THE RIGHT THING.
We are ambitious. Both as a company and as individuals. We want our people to always be looking to take the next step up in everything they and we do. To BE GOAL ORIENTED.
We respect and value our customers. Without visitors, we would have no marketing partners, without marketing partners we could not serve our users. To protect both of these very important groups we do business WITH THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF INTEGRITY. In how we deliver content and in how we conduct our day to day business activities.
We want our work environment to be one where people can BE PASSIONATE AND HAVE FUN.
LOL.
OK.
Rafat Ali tweeted it best.
Congrats @JimSpanfeller on the Gizmodo deal, but this quote!! " [The] entire digital media category is beginning to be recognized again for its unique ability to meet the diverse content and delivery needs of consumers & advertisers." ?? https://t.co/3ygL59og4M pic.twitter.com/mkz3SqpFC1
- Rafat Ali, Media Operator (@rafat) April 8, 2019