First, it was bye bye Geosign, revealed as an internet ad arbitrage play.
And then it was bye bye Dex.TV due to a Ponzi scheme.
Now, the big question that remains at this blog is what is the real story of secretive CEP News? Could it be that the Bank of Canada is starting to wonder too?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Is the end nigh for CEP News aka Canadian Economic Press?
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5 comments:
This CEP story has been puzzling me too. On reading your various posts on your blog. I focussed on their coverage and spent Feb digging stuff up. For purposes of comparison between other major wires and CEP News, I have used three non-Canadian data releases from February. These are as follows:
Feb 10 : UK Total Trade Balance (Released by the Office for National Statistics, London)
Feb 11 : UK Unemployment Figures (Released by the Office for National Statistics, London)
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King’s Comments on release of the Bank’s latest quarterly inflation report
US Trade Balance (Released by the Department of Commerce)
Feb 13 : Eurozone GDP (Released by Eurostat)
News Content:
Process anomalies and concerns about plagiarising aside, lets us examine CEP News’ current "non-Canadian" content, post-closure of Washington DC and London offices (as revealed on this blog), after which Marshall Taylor (DC reporter) and Gaurav Sharma (London Reporter) no longer wrote for the company. At least there is no evidence to suggest that they did from what I have found out.
CEP News articles are patchy at best. However, at their worst they lack any structure or flow or appear to have been writing by experienced personnel. If we look at the UK Trade Balance release of Feb 10, this is a CEP News report:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/231123
And here is a Market Watch story:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/uk-dec-goods-trade-deficit/story.aspx?guid=%7B6CF092AF-C448-4891-8FE2-66B4A340FE99%7D&dist=msr_1
Going online, at exactly six minutes after the Market Watch story, CEP News brings the headline visible (goods) trade deficit data out in the second-last paragraph of the story instead of leading with it. This is a key info, according to my reading of the said ONS release and also that of Market Watch journalists and comparable Reuters or Bloomberg stories.
However, this is not a glaring miss only a stupidity. Here is CEP’s gem on UK unemployment figures:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232408 (at 4:50 EST)
Comparable Reuters or Bloomberg copies:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYzkn_.Qttvc (at 4:31 EST from ONS press briefing room in Islington, London)
The opening paragraph itself demonstrates the depth of the Bloomberg article, its remit and what it’s likely to offer. It’s also written 20 mins before the CEP story and by a journalist physically present in the press briefing room. Herein lays the difference. CEP story has hurriedly inputted figures, Bloomberg story has all the figures plus that little bit extra.
And later in the day, this is how the CEP News review starts:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232748
“With the…..” (And the story has actually also passed through one of CEP News’ sub-editors). Here’s full Shakespearean text -
“(CEP News) - While the UK claimant count increase was less than expected, thereby keeping the number of jobless benefit claims below two million in January, economists foresee unemployment only rising this year, with the jobless rate possibly topping 11% by 2010.”
For good measure, here is a Reuters’ review of the figures:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51A23S20090211
The quality gaps are clear for everyone to see in CEP’s overseas coverage, yet they like us to believe that they are a thriving company which gets new subscribers everyday. Here is another example on BOE Governor Mervyn King’s Feb statement:
CEP News:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232473
REUTERS/BLOOMBERG
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51A2GL20090211
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMxgEGM0k8co&
This CEP story has been puzzling me too. On reading your various posts on your blog. I focussed on their coverage and spent Feb digging stuff up. For purposes of comparison between other major wires and CEP News, I have used three non-Canadian data releases from February. These are as follows:
Feb 10 : UK Total Trade Balance (Released by the Office for National Statistics, London)
Feb 11 : UK Unemployment Figures (Released by the Office for National Statistics, London)
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King’s Comments on release of the Bank’s latest quarterly inflation report
US Trade Balance (Released by the Department of Commerce)
Feb 13 : Eurozone GDP (Released by Eurostat)
News Content:
Process anomalies and concerns about plagiarising aside, lets us examine CEP News’ current "non-Canadian" content, post-closure of Washington DC and London offices (as revealed on this blog), after which Marshall Taylor (DC reporter) and Gaurav Sharma (London Reporter) no longer wrote for the company. At least there is no evidence to suggest that they did from what I have found out.
CEP News articles are patchy at best. However, at their worst they lack any structure or flow or appear to have been writing by experienced personnel. If we look at the UK Trade Balance release of Feb 10, this is a CEP News report:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/231123
And here is a Market Watch story:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/uk-dec-goods-trade-deficit/story.aspx?guid=%7B6CF092AF-C448-4891-8FE2-66B4A340FE99%7D&dist=msr_1
Going online, at exactly six minutes after the Market Watch story, CEP News brings the headline visible (goods) trade deficit data out in the second-last paragraph of the story instead of leading with it. This is a key info, according to my reading of the said ONS release and also that of Market Watch journalists and comparable Reuters or Bloomberg stories.
However, this is not a glaring miss only a stupidity. Here is CEP’s gem on UK unemployment figures:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232408 (at 4:50 EST)
Comparable Reuters or Bloomberg copies:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYzkn_.Qttvc (at 4:31 EST from ONS press briefing room in Islington, London)
The opening paragraph itself demonstrates the depth of the Bloomberg article, its remit and what it’s likely to offer. It’s also written 20 mins before the CEP story and by a journalist physically present in the press briefing room. Herein lays the difference. CEP story has hurriedly inputted figures, Bloomberg story has all the figures plus that little bit extra.
And later in the day, this is how the CEP News review starts:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232748
“With the…..” (And the story has actually also passed through one of CEP News’ sub-editors). Here’s full Shakespearean text -
“(CEP News) - While the UK claimant count increase was less than expected, thereby keeping the number of jobless benefit claims below two million in January, economists foresee unemployment only rising this year, with the jobless rate possibly topping 11% by 2010.”
For good measure, here is a Reuters’ review of the figures:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51A23S20090211
The quality gaps are clear for everyone to see in CEP’s overseas coverage, yet they like us to believe that they are a thriving company which gets new subscribers everyday. Here is another example on BOE Governor Mervyn King’s Feb statement:
CEP News:
http://www.economicnews.ca/cepnews/wire/article/232473
REUTERS/BLOOMBERG
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE51A2GL20090211
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMxgEGM0k8co&
Do you think it’s a surprise that Bank of Canada is taking a look at your blog? Following the closure of CEP's London and Washington DC offices, I thought I'd :
(a) where are they actually accredited,
(b) where they actually turn-up for press briefings, and
(c) figure out how they get their news if they are not physically turning-up
Direct inquiries at Bank of England (BOE), UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), US Department of Commerce, Eurostat as well as the European Central Bank (ECB) reveal that CEP News do not have press briefing room accreditations at any of these places except the ECB, which we will discuss later.
UK:
To begin with after CEP News closed their UK office, my sources at the Bank of England (BOE) suggest their last live report was filed at the end of May 2008, following which they are no longer authorized to either report on-site or receive embargoed information either electronically or non-electronically. BOE confirmed that it does not email publication data on an embargo overseas. Sources further suggest that CEP News was also attempting establish an RSS-feed link set-up but that too has failed. BOE sources revealed that CEP said they were no longer interested in the platform following cash-flow problems.
Ringing the press office of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in London, reveals similar results – i.e. that CEP News’ last live report was filed from there in May 2008 and CEP no longer have access to either the ONS’ new press briefing room facility or their material.
Another interesting piece of information has also come out of London. Even while CEP News were reporting from both places prior to May 2008, at most of the relevant places where they sought accreditation (e.g. – including but not limited to CBI, BCC and BRC, etc), no one knows them, yet everyone is familiar with their London journalist Gaurav Sharma. In each of the cases, Sharma was the personal guarantor with his UK press ID. It seems no one in England either accepted or acknowledged CEP News, until Sharma offered his own press card as a personal guarantee and put his own reputation on the line. No documents anywhere in UK mention anyone other than Sharma. No names, no addresses, no phone numbers – Now isn’t that strange?
US:
Following the closure of Washington DC office in April 2008, CEP News also no longer has any existing accreditations in US. Between, Feb and March (2008), the US senate press gallery was asking questions about their investors’ info, but CEP News was not coming-up with any convincing answers.
As the veracity of their answers was being increasingly doubted by my sources in DC circles, CEP News suddenly announced that they were having funding problems and were withdrawing operations from US. Since then no CEP News reporter has done spot reporting from Washington DC according Press Club sources. Akin to the British-end of things, it seems many people in DC know Marshall Taylor, CEP’s DC Bureau chief, but not many or in fact any were convinced by CEP’s standing as a spot-reporting wire. Furthermore, many suggest that when people insisted to Marshall Taylor that CEP’s top brass be sent over, Matthew Stone was sent by the company. Stone instead of convincing people only served to increase the ranks of the doubters.
Recent US news articles on CEP’s website seem to have been authored by a reporter with a name Patrick McGee with a New York dateline. McGee, according to my findings, was an “intern” at the Washington DC office before it was closed in 2008. Rest of the news is all sourced via an AP feed.
Germany:
CEP News’ lone surviving accreditation at the European Central Bank (ECB) is equally bizarre. To begin with they are fully accredited at the ECB with their Bureau chief’s home address. His name is Bryan Richard Thomas, and the address is - Lotharstr 21, Bonn, Germany 53115. Mysteriously, CEP News removed this address
Do you think it’s a surprise that Bank of Canada is taking a look at your blog? Following the closure of CEP's London and Washington DC offices, I thought I'd :
(a) where are they actually accredited,
(b) where they actually turn-up for press briefings, and
(c) figure out how they get their news if they are not physically turning-up
Direct inquiries at Bank of England (BOE), UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), US Department of Commerce, Eurostat as well as the European Central Bank (ECB) reveal that CEP News do not have press briefing room accreditations at any of these places except the ECB, which we will discuss later.
UK:
To begin with after CEP News closed their UK office, my sources at the Bank of England (BOE) suggest their last live report was filed at the end of May 2008, following which they are no longer authorized to either report on-site or receive embargoed information either electronically or non-electronically. BOE confirmed that it does not email publication data on an embargo overseas. Sources further suggest that CEP News was also attempting establish an RSS-feed link set-up but that too has failed. BOE sources revealed that CEP said they were no longer interested in the platform following cash-flow problems.
Ringing the press office of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in London, reveals similar results – i.e. that CEP News’ last live report was filed from there in May 2008 and CEP no longer have access to either the ONS’ new press briefing room facility or their material.
Another interesting piece of information has also come out of London. Even while CEP News were reporting from both places prior to May 2008, at most of the relevant places where they sought accreditation (e.g. – including but not limited to CBI, BCC and BRC, etc), no one knows them, yet everyone is familiar with their London journalist Gaurav Sharma. In each of the cases, Sharma was the personal guarantor with his UK press ID. It seems no one in England either accepted or acknowledged CEP News, until Sharma offered his own press card as a personal guarantee and put his own reputation on the line. No documents anywhere in UK mention anyone other than Sharma. No names, no addresses, no phone numbers – Now isn’t that strange?
US:
Following the closure of Washington DC office in April 2008, CEP News also no longer has any existing accreditations in US. Between, Feb and March (2008), the US senate press gallery was asking questions about their investors’ info, but CEP News was not coming-up with any convincing answers.
As the veracity of their answers was being increasingly doubted by my sources in DC circles, CEP News suddenly announced that they were having funding problems and were withdrawing operations from US. Since then no CEP News reporter has done spot reporting from Washington DC according Press Club sources. Akin to the British-end of things, it seems many people in DC know Marshall Taylor, CEP’s DC Bureau chief, but not many or in fact any were convinced by CEP’s standing as a spot-reporting wire. Furthermore, many suggest that when people insisted to Marshall Taylor that CEP’s top brass be sent over, Matthew Stone was sent by the company. Stone instead of convincing people only served to increase the ranks of the doubters.
Recent US news articles on CEP’s website seem to have been authored by a reporter with a name Patrick McGee with a New York dateline. McGee, according to my findings, was an “intern” at the Washington DC office before it was closed in 2008. Rest of the news is all sourced via an AP feed.
Germany:
CEP News’ lone surviving accreditation at the European Central Bank (ECB) is equally bizarre. To begin with they are fully accredited at the ECB with their Bureau chief’s home address. His name is Bryan Richard Thomas, and the address is - Lotharstr 21, Bonn, Germany 53115. Mysteriously, CEP News removed this address
Thanks very much for that.
Like the AIG bonus story, which lay dormant for months, I'm convinced that what's really going on at CEP News will eventually come out.
Someone's got to know where the money's coming from. And it's not subscribers.
All theories welcome.
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