Former Daily Beast editrix Tina Brown alienated staffers by blurring the lines between her news operation and her pet non-profit, sources told The Post.
Brown expected to spend about 2 hours a week working on her non-profit Women in the World Foundation when it launched in 2011, according to the fund’s IRS registration.
But she routinely enlisted Newsweek and Daily Beast staffers during the work week to help boost the fund’s web presence, several sources said.
“There were a number of people she asked to write stories for the Women in the World website, even though they were working for Newsweek or Daily Beast,” said one source familiar with the operation. “It was as if the non-profit was a third component of the editorial effort, even though it was supposed to be a separate entity.”
Noted another source: “’Ask’ is a polite way of saying it. It was more a directive. We were told to provide their content.”
The foundation’s website boasts stories about women’s political and social issues, links to seminars and “educational tools.”
The Daily Beast and Newsweek launched the non-profit in 2011 to harness the success of Brown’s popular and lucrative Women in the World summit, an annual girl power pow-wow featuring top politicians and celebrities.
Sources said Brown’s blurred lines also extended to advertisers — and the annual summit events.
“She suggested offering to trade ad or editorial space on the Beast in exchange for a donation to the foundation,” said a source familiar with Brown’s advertising meetings. The same deal was extended to people who wanted tickets to the hard-to-get summits, the source said.
“Newsweek and Daily Beast were an easy, available way to boost her Women in the World empire,” a former colleague said.
Brown — who this week quit Daily Beast to form her own company — revealed Friday revealed she would merge the non-profit with international women’s rights charity Vital Voices, where she is on the board of directors. Women in the World made a $650,000 grant to Vital Voices as part of the new venture.
A source told Fox News the Vital Voices grant was made Thursday night, to beat a Friday Post story about the Women in the World Foundation’s grant-giving.
A Vital Voice source said the venture with Women in the World had been in the works for “the past few days” and that the grant announcement had been planned for Friday.
Brown seemed confused about the grant amount, telling MSNBC that it was “$500,000.” Reps for Brown and Vital Voices confirmed the grant was $650,000.
On Friday, The Post reported that Women in the World took in $1.17 million in its first six months of operation, but doled out just $10,000 in grant money. It spent $430,000 on programming during that period — which included $168,000 for a star-studded launch party.
When it launched, Women in the World had initially sought to spend most of its funding on educational and informational efforts, but stepped up its grant giving last year.
The non-profit has distributed a total $1.1 million in grants, including the Vital Voices contribution, since its inception, on contributions of $2.6 million, a spokeswoman said.
About $1.5 million went to program funding, including education and awards programs, outreach and the Women in the World web portal.
In an email to supporters Friday, Brown blasted the Post report about her charity as “false and misleading.”
Additional reporting by Keith J. Kelly