Jim Spanfeller

News Byte

Forbes Gets a New Boss: Softbank's Mike Perlis

Peter Kafka in Media on November 15, 2010 at 2:37 pm PT

After a very, very long search, Forbes Media has finally tapped a new leader: Softbank Capital’s Mike Perlis, who will become president and CEO of the business magazine and Web site. Perlis fills holes left by former Forbes.com publisher Jim Spanfeller, who left in 2009, and Forbes magazine publisher Jim Berrien, who left in 2008. The move also means that COO Tim Forbes will no longer run the company day-to-day. Curious what this means for Softbank, which has already seen partner Eric Hippeau head out to run Huffington Post in 2009? Nothing, says Perlis: “Business as usual”.

Former Forbes.com Publisher Jim Spanfeller Has VC Money; New Sites on the Way

Peter Kafka in Media on June 29, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Former Forbes.com publisher Jim Spanfeller has a new gig: A venture-backed Web publishing start-up. Spanfeller Media Group, which plans to launch a series of new sites, is close to finishing a funding round that I’m told will total around $2 million. Backers include RRE Ventures, Greenhill SAVP, SoftBank and Lerer Media Ventures.

Forbes Buys True/Slant

Peter Kafka in Media on May 25, 2010 at 8:42 am PT

That was fast. And not that surprising: Forbes Media, which invested in digital news start-up True/Slant two years ago and brought on founder Lewis Dvorkin as a “consultant” this spring, has now bought the entire company. Dvorkin’s new title is chief product officer.

How to Survive the Media Meltdown: “Imagination, Enthusiasm”

Peter Kafka in Media on July 21, 2009 at 7:17 am PT

Still have a job in media? Looking for a wee bit of inspiration in a gloomy week in a miserable year? Here’s a free pep talk.

Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller Out. Here’s the Internal Memo.

Peter Kafka in Media on July 15, 2009 at 8:26 pm PT

Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, who has run one of the Web’s biggest finance sites for the last nine years, is leaving the company at the end of the summer. No replacement has been named. Spanfeller’s departure comes amid a flurry of bad news for finance publications.

QOTD

“In the end, in attempting to ‘do no evil,’ Google has done exactly that. I say this not just as someone running a content site but also as an end user. If this inequity of support continues along these lines, we will see a continuing destruction of our journalistic enterprises–enterprises that are one of the core building blocks of our democracy. Last year, while addressing the magazine publishers and editors of the MPA at the Google Campus, Eric Schmidt suggested that the Web was a ‘cesspool’ and that it was up to the major journalistic brands to clean it up. Well, Eric, in a great many ways, Google has helped to create that cesspool, and as such I would hope that it can be part of the solution.”

– Forbes CEO Jim Spanfeller

Found: A Publishing Optimist!

Peter Kafka in Media on October 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm PT

What does Condé Nast publisher David Carey know that everyone else doesn’t? And who are these bullish advertising clients he’s talking to? Live from paidContent’s “Future of Business Media” conference, it’s … hope?