Forbes.com LLC CEO Jim Spanfeller announced he will resign from the company once a successor is named. Spanfeller, who basically took the magazine online, will stay on at the company through Labor Day to help his replacement in the transition.
In an internal memo, which can be found on paidContent.org, Spanfeller explains that he plans to open his own consulting firm.
Now I see a huge opportunity to have my
own media management business that will help other traditional media
companies make the most of their enormous prospects in digital venues,
taking all I have learned here in the past decade and applying on a
wider horizon. Forbes.com has truly been a truly wonderful ride and I
am deeply in debt to the Forbes family for letting me be a part of it.
Spanfeller's departure from
Forbes has been rumored before, especially when Forbes minority
stakeholder Elevation Partners installed a new Forbes board
member, Bret Pearlman, but Spanfeller negated rumors that he was being "pushed out" on PaidContent.org.
I think there will be lots of different angles on how people try to
interpret it," he said, adding, "at the end of the day, you can't run
your life" based on what other people say or think.
There's no word yet on who Spanfeller's replacement will be.
- Maria Woehr
