Jim Spanfeller
Jim Spanfeller

Stanton reps Great Hill Partners as the Boston-based private equity firm acquires Gizmodo Group and The Onion from Univision Communications.

Jim Spanfeller, former CEO of Forbes.com and Ziff Davis' digital consumer group will helm the new company, G/O Media Inc.

He’ll oversee brands that reach about 100M visitors monthly, including Deadspin (sports), Jezebel (women’s interests), The Root (African-American news/culture) Gizmodo (technology), Jalopnik (cars), Kotaku (gaming) and Lifehacker (life tips).

Most recently, Spanfeller, past chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, built and sold a digital content company featuring Active Times and The Daily Meal to tronc inc.

GHP’s Chris Gaffney noted that the acquired digital media assets combine for a larger audience than Vice, Vox or Buzzfeed.

He sees “a great opportunity to further scale a high-quality content producer led by an experienced digital media executive like Jim.”

Alex Stanton handles GHP’s transaction.