Inside the Daily Beast revamp: an ax-waving boss, dog pee on the carpet and Barry Diller ‘scurrying around’
NY Post
Daily Beast staffers are bracing for the worst as the tabloid news site mounts a turnaround — fearing that their new boss is already sharpening the ax, even as she issues bizarre demands for staffing and stories, The Post has learned.
Former Hearst Magazines executive Joanna Coles — who along with former Disney bigwig Ben Sherwood were granted a minority stake in the Daily Beast from media mogul Barry Diller — barged into the site’s headquarters on Monday, the same day the deal was announced, sources said.
As the 61-year-old exec swiftly installed herself in the corner office of former Daily Beast CEO Heather Dietrick, staffers got a scary assignment: a one-page memo, due Friday, outlining who they are and how they want to cover their beats, sources said.
“People understand the memo as telling Coles ‘Why I should keep my job at The Daily Beast,'” said a source close to the situation.
A source close to Coles told The Post on Thursday that the British-born editor often asks staffers to produce a one-page memo when she starts a new job in order to drum up fresh ideas.
Adding to the sense of dread, IAC’s billionaire chairman Diller made a rare appearance in the newsroom this week — “scurrying around” without mingling with the rank and file, according to a source.
