President and Chief Executive Officer
The Spanfeller Media Group

Jim Spanfeller is Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Spanfeller Media Group (SMG), a venture-backed web-based content company. SMG’s first website, TheDailyMeal.com, covers all things food.  Off to a great start, The Daily Meal, which launched in January 2011, has already attracted over 1.5 million monthly unique visitors, making it the fastest growing food site on the Web.

Prior to SMG Jim served as the President and CEO of Forbes.com, home page the world’s business leaders, reaching 20 million decision makers, investors, professionals and affluent consumers each month. In this position, Spanfeller oversaw Forbes Digital, an amalgam of Forbes.com, ForbesTraveler.com, Investopedia.com, RealClearPolitics.com, RealClearMarkets.com, RealClearSports.com, and the Forbes.com Business and Finance Blog Network, which together reached 42 million unique monthly visitors. Spanfeller was also a member of the Office of the Chairman, along with Steve Forbes and Timothy Forbes.

Spanfeller has received numerous industry accolades.  Most recently, he accepted the first ever Founders Award from the IAB for lifetime achievement.  He has been included in BtoB Media Business’ “Who’s Who in Business Publishing,” and was named “Top Interactive Executive for General Business Publishers” as part of the Top Innovators in Business Publishing Awards. He has also been included in BtoB Magazine’s “Top 25 Newsmakers” as well as their “Media Power 50 List” at #4, and was inducted into min’s first ever Digital Hall of Fame.

In addition to jhis role as Secretary of the Online Publisher’s Association (OPA), Spanfeller is a Chairman Emeritus of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).  He also sits on the boards of Ziff Davis Enterprise Group, MediaSmith LLC and The We Are Family Foundation.

In addition to these full board positions Spanfeller serves on the advisory boards of several aspiring web start-ups such as We7, WebMynd, TrustMetrics and Fattail.

He writes frequently in leading industry trade publications and speaks regularly throughout the world on media issues in the digital age. 
Before his time at Forbes.com, Spanfeller was President of the Consumer Magazine Group of Ziff Davis Media, Inc. He also previously served as Publisher of Inc. Magazine as well as held senior positions at Playboy Enterprises Publishing Group and Newsweek.

Spanfeller received a B.A. in English Literature from Union College.  He lives in New York City with his wife, Peg, and their three daughters.