An update on CEP News, DexTV and Geosign

I haven't had all that much time for this blog lately but I wanted to post something on the three big stories (implosions) I've covered here and encourage readers to come forward if they have any new information.

CEP News (Canadian Economic Press)

I never did manage to find out who was behind CEP News and why. The latest rumour is that CEP News was set up by Trade the News after TTN got into trouble for pilfering news stories. That makes sense to me, as much of the original CEP News promo material strongly resembled that of Trade the News.

I never got to the bottom of Need to Know News either, although it was confirmed to me by an inside source that they have no customers.

Needless to say, I would still love to know just what business it is that is so profitable it makes it worthwhile to set up a fully staffed fake news agency. Be sure to let me know if you figure it out.

Funnily enough, whoever's behind CEP News has not stopped buying lots of Google AdWords ads on their key search terms. Either someone forgot to cancel the account or the former backers want to do everything they can to ensure that those with information don't make their way to this site. Alas, AB.com is now ranking high for CEP News in organic search so -- who knows? --maybe a knowedgeable source will eventually fill us all in on what really went on.

For whatever reason, all these "news agencies" are very interested in Frankfurt these days if that's any help.

• Read all posts tagged CEP News and NTKN and please let me know if you've got any new information to share

DexTV (Brookshire Media and Brookshire Raw Materials)

This was a transparent story compared to CEP News. A bunch of cads used the proceeds from a Ponzi scheme to set up a vanity internet TV station. None of the reporters working for this business news operation figured out the story beneath their noses. For some reason, an American lawyer seems to be backing them as they start the TV station up all over again. There are all sorts of comments about what John Marshall and team are now up to.

• Read all posts tagged DexTV and please let me know if you've got any new information to share

Geosign

I'm still curious about that deal with American Capital and the continuing use of more sophisticated forms of ad arbitrage. When hockey.com failed as a content site, I had a good laugh at the expense of all those silly direct navigation types. It's just another one of those familiar Geosign arbitrage sites now although I can't figure out if the ads are from Geosign's old friend, Yahoo, or another company. Meanwhile, Tim Nye continues to try and portray himself as a reclusive inventor who used to be known as Einstein as opposed to the Willy Loman clone who got lucky.

• Read all posts tagged Geosign and please let me know if you've got any new information to share

Ex-CEP News staff starts a new site, the Overnight Express

According to Twitter, Paula Midena is the owner of this much-needed new site.



Erik Franco is also involved. Check out the domain name.



But not this Erik Franco Gomez. There's no John that we know of.


Hmm.

Ex-DexTv staff start a new TV station, Inside Business TV

Honestly, you really do have to wonder why anyone would give money to a bunch of business "journalists" who failed to spot the ponzi scheme under their noses. But someone has. Check out www.insidebusinesstv.net and its staff including Chris Henry and Rick Crabb.

Let's just hope they've finally found themselves some legit, if foolish, backers. Here's more on William O'Connor. Hmm.

Hmmm

I decided to check out World Business Press just like the RCMP. The Bratislava-based global news agency appears to have had a recent facelift. Now that it's applying for press accreditation at various European central banks, I guess it's decided to shed the old look.

CEP News supposedly a cover for Trade the News

See TNT here. Here's a song for you all:

It all makes sense to me now

Reporters and lockups are indeed irrelevant except as cover.

Trade shows are a great place to meet your real customers.

IT is very important as you're redirecting.

Fraud is a crime for which you can go to jail.

Sometimes big companies can be really dumb.

Bloomberg, Reuters and DJ Telerate cost so much

Wouldn't it be nice to get a discount? A really, really deep discount?

Investigating Need to Know News (NTKN): another very strange case

Since Canadian Economic Press, otherwise known as CEP News, died (or took on yet another new identity perhaps), my curiosity about its American doppelganger, NTKN or Need to Know News, has been piqued. My basic thesis is and always has been that neither CEP nor NTKN are in the news business, but rather they are up to something else. I had also always believed that NTKN was the bigger of the two operations, a premise I now suspect was completely backwards and based on my Canadian cultural assuumptions that if it's American, it must be bigger.

I discovered this latest size factoid thanks to some ads I have been running trying to get to the bottom of this whole story. The information I have received about impressions for my target keywords shows that NTKN, its Lightning Bolt news service and Scream Audio, get almost no search traffic. In other words, no one searches for these terms, which almost certainly means that no one uses NTKN, Lightning Bolt or Audio Scream, so just like CEP News, with its lack of paying customers and large well-funded news operation, NTKN would seem to be some sort of front.

But front for what? I've never believed it's all a ruse to get into lock-ups as lock-ups are pretty well policed. I used to think it was about Forex trading but I'm currently leaning away from that theory.

One thing's for sure though: it seems to be a pretty easy formula to copy with a little bit of cash. My theory is that NTKN was the first in on this mystery business, then someone in the CEP gang figured out what NTKN doing and copied it, and Bratislava-based World Business Press Online is yet another knockoff of the same model whatever it is.

Please send all tips my way with confidentiality guaranteed.

ann dot brocklehurst at gmail dot com

Contact me

ann dot brocklehurst at gmail dot com
Here's some NTKN background

If I don't know you, I won't respond to a LinkedIn invite. Just contact me directly please.

The future

Canadian Mortgage Trends reports on the shuttering of CEP News:

On a positive note, (Paula) Midena says, “Some of our former employees are currently working on several exciting projects that will be unveiled in the next few weeks.”

“Stay tuned!” she told us.

No comment.

Is there a Tullett Prebon connection?

This actually makes more sense to me.

Is there a CEP News/ Tullett Prebon connection?

This actually makes more sense to me.

Is there a CEP News / ProTrade connection?

Shortly after CEP News was shuttered, a secret fax was sent from the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal, saying that the answer to all the questions lay with ProTrade Finance whose Toronto address was the same executive office rental set-up that CEP had used.

ProTrade Finance (ProTrade.ca) did indeed have a shady website, which has since been taken down, but then that's not that unusual for businesses with a 100 King St. West address. Alas, ProTrade's web clean-up was not as thorough as CEP News' so they left up their protrade.finance.ca site and are still visible in the Wayback Machine, Google's cache and CIRA:

Along with Marc Wade, who is/was president and/or CEO, another contact address is given at CIRA for Todd Gauer or toddg@baystreetcap.com. Todd is the prez of Bay Street Cap, but you wouldn't know that from the website, which, in CEPesque fashion, doesn't give any of the names of the people behind the company. Some creative googling also brought up the name of Andrew Libera as managing director of ProTrade and a director of Kingsmill Capital Ventures. Interestingly enough, Marc Wade also has a Kingsmill connection, completing the slippery circle.

Just one problem, though, and that is none of these guys have any (visible) ties to CEP News or Marco Gomez or Darren Corbett -- or at least none that I could find. Maybe you can...

CEP News: Definitely dead, Google cache is cleared out too!

Confession time: In my wildest moments, I even thought CEP News might be a spy shop.

Is CEP News dead? Take your screen shots now

Rumours out of San Francisco earlier this week suggested CEP News (aka Canadian Economic Press) was in its death throes, but now it looks as if the plug might finally have been pulled.

Anyone know if there was anything to that fax about the Protrade Finance connection other than the 100 King St. West address?

When exactly did the site go dark?

Comments are open. Maybe someone will finally spill. Or contact me at ann.brocklehurst@gmail.com

1. When exactly did the site go dark?