spanfeller.txt

In addition to poor planning and communication around the video player, multiple
sources say Spanfeller wouldn’t allow the tech team to implement video tracking
analytics on JW Player, so no one had any idea how many views videos were
getting. One theory was that Spanfeller thought implementing analytics would
take developer resources away from building the new video platform and player,
though employees said implementing analytics is a relatively easy fix. Another
was more direct: “That’s Jim wanting to be in control. We could have video
analytics today. He’s trying to micromanage,” the tech employee said last week.

Spanfeller said that he wasn’t preventing, “just delaying” analytics from being
implemented, on the grounds that it’s “not particularly useful information at
the moment.” (The day after Deadspin contacted Spanfeller for comment, the tech
team was given the green light to roll out video analytics.)

This isn’t the first time Spanfeller has been accused of micromanaging. Multiple
people who worked for him at The Daily Meal (part of Spanfeller Media Group)
told Deadspin that Spanfeller couldn’t cede any control.