Down the rabbit hole of Canadian Journalism: the curious case of Denise Deveau, BlueSky Communications and the Financial Post

What started off as a criticism of yet another somewhat misleading real estate article in the newspaper may well have become a trip down the rabbit hole of Canadian journalism.

Last Thursday we began asking if Denise Deveau, a freelance reporter, was actually working on behalf of a communications company when she submitted what amounted to a glorified advertisement for a Vancouver mortgage brokerage company to the Financial Post.

The formula pulp piece appeared March 27th and was titled "Home is where the retirement money is"

A subject is introduced, background given (with requisite problem/issue) and then a company was profiled.  This particular article caught our eye because sharp eyed blogosphere sleuths noticed the subject happened to work for the company profiled in the article.

This fact wasn't originally revealed to readers, a simple white lie that rankles given the litany of media manipulation we've seen from the real estate industry recently.

Was the article 'news' or was it 'newsvertising'? 

As we dug a little deeper, some disturbing facts surfaced. 

The freelance reporter, it turns out, is listed as an employee with not one, but two communications companies.

On the website of one these companies, the public is told clients can obtain "continuous media coverage" from the PR firm:

Whether we are securing regular media coverage for you, making you the topic of online discussions or developing impactful marketing pieces, our integrated, big-picture approach is intrinsically linked to where you want to bring your business... Our outstanding results speak for themselves. We are particularly talented in getting continuous media coverage for our clients that communicates directly to the target market. And after engaging us for a period of time, you will see the impressive impact media coverage has on your business.

In another section of the website we discover Denise Deveau, the freelance reporter with the Financial Post, works for the firm.  From the profiles of BlueSky Communications employees:

Denise has over 20 years of journalism and corporate communications experience. She handles a wide variety of writing and research assignments in the high tech, financial services, retail, government, education, oil and gas, and consumer sectors Whether it’s a thought provoking article, or compelling marketing collateral, Denise is able to deliver an effective piece that will meet your business objectives.

Awfully convenient having one of the Financial Post's regular freelance contributors on staff to potentially bring these website claims to life, isn't it?

If this is actually what is happening, we asked if there wasn't an inherent conflict of interest (or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest) when a member of a communications company (who specialize in gaining access to media for their clients) writes for the Financial Post?

Shortly after asking this, the online profiles of Denise Deveau began disappearing from the websites of both communications companies (see here and here).

Naturally this raised eyebrows and we felt compelled to take a closer look at what is going on here.

BlueSky Communications has an interesting website page where they talk about their clients appearances in the news, a sort of self-congratulatory promotional page for their past success stories.

(At least the webpage exists as of last night, we'll see if it stays there much longer).

For kicks and giggles we took a look through to see which clients BlueSky has in its stable. Next we poked around the internet to see if Deveau may have had any articles published in the media profiling those same clients.

BlueSky seems particularly proud of the work they have done for the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University, so we started there (click on images to enlarge):

Sure enough it didn't take long to find an article from Deveau.

On January 19th, 2013, Deveau contributed this article to the Financial Post (which was picked up by the Edmonton Journal).

It follows the same formula as the article for the Vancouver mortgage broker company.  Someone is profiled, background given (with requisite problem/issue stated) and then a company was profiled. This time it is the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University. Here is the initial shout-out to them:

Coincidence?

If it was just one article, perhaps. Let's face it, BlueSky promises to obtain "continuous media coverage" for its clients so one article is hardly a smoking gun.

But a little more digging and we come across this February 4th, 2013 article which appeared on Canada.com. 

Same formula again. In the body of the article is this shout-out to the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

Another coincidence?

What about this one? On November 17, 2012, there was this article for post media news (again picked up by the Edmonton Journal). Same formula and in the body of the article is this shout-out to the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

Google actually reveals quite a few articles that Deveau has written which happen to mention the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

On a case study page for various clients, BlueSky offers this testimonial from the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University:

"Working with BlueSky Communications has been instrumental in generating awareness of our programs while raising the profile of our instructors as experts in their fields - contributing to increased enrollment and positioning us as leaders in continuing education."

- Marilou Cruz, Marketing Manager, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University

BlueSky Communications seems to have quite the track record of successfully placing their clients front and centre in media stories. BlueSky's case studies page boasts of their numerous achievements.

For Bread and Butter Skincare, BlueSky secured 45 media stories (averaging 13.5 articles a month) from october 2009 - April 2010:

LifeSpeak Inc., a company that designs customized workshops for corporations, hired BlueSky for its national launch. BlueSky's efforts resulted in

front-page media coverage in the National Post and profiles in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, CBC Radio and Canadian Living. BlueSky’s ability to generate pre-launch buzz and build anticipation proved successful in attracting new business calls for LifeSpeak. Ongoing profile in the media has not only helped LifeSpeak continue to attract new clients nation-wide, it’s also helped the company attract new speakers for its roster.

Clearly BlueSky Communications is very effective at their job. 

But as we asked at the start, is there not an inherent conflict of interest (or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest) when a member of a communications company (who specializes in gaining access to media for their clients) writes for a given media outlet?

These 'news' articles appear to be nothing more than advertising features for the companies that are profiled.

Don't the rules of disclosure demand the public is told this fact up front? Exactly how widespread is this practice anyway? Does government have to mandate that "ADVERTISING FEATURE" be stamped across these newspaper articles so that our press is transparent to us?

More importantly, is there any real journalism being done by our nation's written press anymore?

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A Vancouver Sun Editor responds to one controversy, the Financial Post remains silent on another.

Integrity.

The local real estate blogosphere has good reason to question the existence of it in our media the past year or so.

• We've seen stories local real estate agents of Asian descent taken on helicopter rides and portrayed as  eager Chinese buyers,
• we've seen a real estate agent pose as a customer while promoting a groupon-style real estate scheme,
• we've had real estate marketing company employees pose as Asian buyers to create the impression of a buying frenzy for Chinese New Year, and
• we've seen fake pictures of a mansion from a real estate agent's website generate worldwide interest for a house that doesn't exist.

All of these examples did not require a great amount of sleuthing to conclude they were not as they appeared. It has many questioning the integrity of the news media and whether the media has been playing a passive role in some of these manipulations.

This sentiment was recently compounded when a highly misleading "newsvertising" article - which required a certain amount of legwork to determine that it was actually a paid advertising feature rather than real news - came out.

Because of this skeptics now find themselves questioning EVERYTHING presented in the media regarding real estate.

Last week it was the validity of Vancouver Sun photo galleries that profile real estate topics.

If the Sun/Province conglomerate can sell adverting through it's 'focus' section and construct that advertising so that it's dressed up like regular news, is it such a stretch to imagine they are selling access to their photo gallery feature as a promotional tool?

The web editor of the Vancouver Sun is Bethany Lindsay.  Here is her LinkedIn profile:

Last night Ms. Lindsay responded directly to this concern. Here is what she had to say:

I'm the Vancouver Sun web editor responsible for that Pricey Pads gallery, so I thought I should probably chime in here. This was absolutely *not* paid content. Real estate galleries do very well for us online -- people got nuts for them for whatever reason -- and Pricey Pads is an easy source to find outrageous listings. On the day in question, I arrived at work at 5 p.m., caught myself up on the news of the day, then clicked on priceypads.com, where I saw this real estate comparison. It was easy click bait and I couldn't resist doing a gallery. Hope that clears things up a bit.

We thank Ms. Lindsay for addressing the issue.

When advertising is presented in a way that it is easily passed as actual news, it brings the integrity of the media into question.  When example after example becomes commonplace, no one is sure what to believe. In the case of Pricey Pads, they became a victim of that doubt.

That's why addressing any concerns (or rigorously following up on them once identified) is so important.

When those local real estate agents of Asian descent were taken on helicopter rides and portrayed as buyers from China, the farce was revealed here by VREAA and here by Garth Turner. But the public was not told the truth behind what happened at the time.

When a realtor posed as a customer while promoting a groupon-style real estate scheme, the story was covered here and here and on other blogs... but no clarification was forthcoming in the press.

When MAC Marketing was caught lying about the identity of their employees in a TV news story, President Cameron MacNeill promised the press he would investigate what happened and take action.  We're still waiting for the media to detail exactly what he found out.

Those shortcomings in the coverage of these incidents harm the credibility of our media.

Currently we have the case of the recent Financial Post news story titled "Home is where the retirement money is". Has there been a serious breach of journalistic ethics committed here?

For those who are not aware, on March 28th and March 29th we posted that sharp-eyed blogosphere sleuths had noticed that the Financial Post article failed to mention that the couple profiled in the story worked for the very mortgage broker company discussed so prominently in the piece.

With that knowledge, the article appears to be little more than a glorified ad for the mortgage broker.

Further examination revealed that the author of the story, Denise Deveau, is a freelance reporter who apparently works for two communications companies who specialize in obtaining media attention for their clients; BlueSky (BS) Communications and Echo Communications. Up until this week, Deveau appeared on the websites of those two firms as an employee.

Is there not an inherent conflict of interest (or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest) when a member of two communications companies (who specialize in gaining access to media for their clients) writes for the Financial Post?

The Financial Post amended their original article to reflect the employment connection between the profiled couple and the mortgage broker. It's a great first step. But it looks like any link to an apparent 'conflict of interest' is being covered up it gains widespread attention.

Yesterday we told you how BS Communications moved to delete any on-line reference to their working relationship with Deveau. Now it appears the other communications firm, Echo Communications, is doing the same thing.

Here is the Echo Communications "Team" page two days ago as seen in the google cache. Denise Deveau is the second name down:

 Here is Deveau's profile that used to be on that site:

These two references have been deleted from that website.  Now the Echo Communications "Team" page looks like this:

Doesn't it strike you as odd that all online references to Denise Deveau by either of these communications companies has been erased this week from the internet?

Rather then step forward, provide an explanation, and account for what occurred here; all we appear to be getting is an attempt to cover up tracks. Why?

This issue needs to be addressed by the Financial Post.

It is crucial to the integrity of the print media, given the recent examples of real estate industry press manipulation, that this story be addressed and the swirling questions answered.

Was Deveau, a freelance reporter, working on behalf of these communications companies (and by extension, the Vancouver mortgage brokerage company) when she submitted what amounts to a glorified advertisement for Ivis Team RRP to the Financial Post?

If she was working for anyone in a communications PR capacity - and she used her freelance position as a writer with the Financial Post as a lever to obtain media coverage for them - was the Financial Post aware of what she was doing before the article was published?

The 'cleansing' currently taking place to remove any reference of Deveau from these company websites merely strengthens the appearance of a conflict of interest and in the modern world of the internet and social media, ignoring the story only compounds the negative speculation.

If CBC-TV and CTV-TV can respond to questions raised in the MAC Marketing fiasco, if Vancouver Province on-line web editor Erik Rolfsen can respond to the fake mansion story, and if Vancouver Sun on-line web editor Bethany Lindsay can respond to questions about the Sun's photo gallery... then surely the Financial Post can respond when legitimate concerns are raised about an apparent conflict of interest by one of their reporters?

It's important the public know what happened here. We need to know that the 'news' printed in our newspapers isn't simply a conduit for real estate industry advertising.

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BlueSky Communications deletes association with Financial Post author from website

A quick break from our Vacation to bring you an update on the Financial Post story we profiled last week.

As you will recall, the Financial Post ran a story titled "Home is where the retirement money is". The author of the column was Denise Deveau.

On March 28th and March 29th we posted that sharp-eyed blogosphere sleuths had noticed that the article had failed to mention that the couple in the story happened to work for the very mortgage broker company that was so prominently profiled. With that knowledge, the article appears to be little more than a glorified ad for the mortgage broker. More disturbingly, the author  was a freelance reporter who appeared to work for two communications companies who specialize in gaining media attention for their clients.

We questioned whether or not this created a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest for the Financial Post.

This week the Financial Post corrected their website version of the article to note the connection between the couple and the company:

Meanwhile it appears the author's connections with one of those communications company's has now been erased.

BlueSky Communications promotes itself by telling clients that:

Whether we are securing regular media coverage for you, making you the topic of online discussions or developing impactful marketing pieces, our integrated, big-picture approach is intrinsically linked to where you want to bring your business... Our outstanding results speak for themselves. We are particularly talented in getting continuous media coverage for our clients that communicates directly to the target market. And after engaging us for a period of time, you will see the impressive impact media coverage has on your business.

One of BlueSky's employee's is/was Denise Deveau - the author of the Financial Post article and a freelance writer. Here is what BlueSky used to say Deveau could do for their clients:

Denise has over 20 years of journalism and corporate communications experience. She handles a wide variety of writing and research assignments in the high tech, financial services, retail, government, education, oil and gas, and consumer sectors Whether it’s a thought provoking article, or compelling marketing collateral, Denise is able to deliver an effective piece that will meet your business objectives.

We say "used to" because Deveau has been deleted from the BlueSky Communications website. Here are screenshots of the eight members of the BlueSky team from their website last week:

Deveau is in the second row, second person. When you clicked on the link to her name you were taken to this page which described Deveau's talents. Here is what it used to say:

Well... that's all gone now.

If you go to the BlueSky "team" page, any mention of Deveau has disappeared. Eight staff members have been reduced to seven:

And the BlueSky page that used to contain Deveau's profile now says 'Not Found':

Like from waves on the sandy beach, the tracks are slowly made to disappear. But the questions remain.

Was there an attempt to leverage benefit from the reporter's access to the media via her associations with various communications companies?

BlueSky Communications advertises that they "secure regular media coverage" for their clients and that Deveau was a member of their team who (up until this week) "is able to deliver an effective piece that will meet your business objectives."

This certainly appears to be exactly what the article in the Financial Post did for Invis - Team Rob Regan-Pollack.

Why has Deveau suddenly been deleted from the BlueSky Communications website?

And doesn't the Financial Post owe it's readers an explanation for exactly what happened here?

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Thursday Post #2: Another media scandal from the real estate industry? News article appears to be contrived shill piece from PR company.

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Update: Information has surfaced connecting the reporter in this story to another communications company as well. See our follow up post here.

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Meet Invis Team Rob Regan-Pollock, mortgage brokers in Vancouver. From their website:

Rob Regan-Pollock and his team of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (AMPs) arrange residential mortgages and small cap commercial financing. Based in Vancouver, we finance purchases, re-finances, new construction, equity take-outs, renewals, and debt consolidation. We are certified Tax Deductible Mortgage Plan (TDMP) consultants and members of MBABC and CAAMP.

You'll notice one member of the team is hilighted in the picture above with a yellow arrow.  That's Allan Hoegg. The website profile tells us "Allan joined Team RRP in 2003. He retired for about 10 minutes in 2007, returning part time later that year. He has enjoyed a career in Financial Services and is originally from Calgary."

We'll get back to him in a moment.

It appears Team RRP has been yearning for a little media exposure. To that end they seem to have turned to BlueSky Communications Company. BlueSky promotes itself by telling clients that:

Whether we are securing regular media coverage for you, making you the topic of online discussions or developing impactful marketing pieces, our integrated, big-picture approach is intrinsically linked to where you want to bring your business. And at better value than what you get from those big-budgeted agencies.

Media Relations: Our outstanding results speak for themselves. We are particularly talented in getting continuous media coverage for our clients that communicates directly to the target market. And after engaging us for a period of time, you will see the impressive impact media coverage has on your business.

One of BlueSky's employee's is Denise Deveau. Here is what BlueSky says Deveau can do for her clients:

Denise has over 20 years of journalism and corporate communications experience. She handles a wide variety of writing and research assignments in the high tech, financial services, retail, government, education, oil and gas, and consumer sectors.

Whether it’s a thought provoking article, or compelling marketing collateral, Denise is able to deliver an effective piece that will meet your business objectives.

Remember last month when we told you about the MAC Marketing scandal?  In that farce, MAC had two of their employees play the role of young Asian condo buyers for a TV interview. When it was discovered they were actually MAC employees, the episode was rationalized as an innocent error in judgement; the MAC employees were simply standing in for 'real' Asian buyers who had bailed on the presser at the last opportunity.

The implication?  Where is the harm? The employees are simply 'playing' the role of actual customers who are out there.

Of course if CBC-TV and CTV-TV knew they were actually talking to two MAC employees, do you think they would have run the feature?

Not a chance, because the deception cuts to the heart of journalistic integrity.

Back to BlueSky employee Deveau and Team RRP.

A curious article appeared this week in the Financial Post titled "Home is where the retirement money is".

With a byline attributed to Denise Deveau, the FP article invites Team RRP's boss (Rob Regan-Pollock) to outline strategies to help aging Boomer's unlock the power of their bubble inflated house to aid in their retirement plans - a service Team RRP specializes in.

To set the stage, readers are introduced to a Boomer couple nearing retirement. Here's their picture from the article:

Recognize the man?

Yep... that's the same Allan Hoegg who works for Team RRP.

So what does the article tell us?  Do they say Hoegg is an employee of Team RRP?

In 1995, Allan and Karin Hoegg were mortgage-free. But no more: today their Vancouver home is a valuable source of income as they plan for full retirement.

Sean Morphy and his wife got a very competitive mortgage rate when they made the jump to home ownership a little over a year ago but it took a long-term relationship with a mortgage professional to get them there.

Allan Hoegg says when their son and daughter-in-law wanted to buy a house, they took out a variable-rate mortgage so they could help them out. “We wanted to take advantage of the stability of the current rates.” To cover the mortgage payments, they rent out a suite in the home to students.

The couple also established a home line of credit that allows them to free up cash for investment purposes when they need it. “It gives you maximum flexibility and you can pay it any time you want without penalty,” he says. “It’s dead easy.”

Like many people planning their retirement, there’s a sentimental side to keeping their home, he says. But there are just as many practical reasons. In the Hoeggs’ case, selling to downsize would mean substantial commissions and moving costs. “Besides, real estate is a very good investment in Vancouver,” he says. “The longer we can stay here, the greater the possibility of no-tax capital gains.”

It's a great, informative article and fabulous advertising for Team RRP. But nowhere is Hoegg's affiliation to Team RRP mentioned.

Doesn't the Financial Post have an obligation to tell us Hoegg is actually an employee of the company featured in this story?

More significantly, doesn't the Financial Post have an obligation to tell us that the story isn't being written by one of their own journalists? That the writer is, in fact, a communication specialist who shills for clients and whose sole job it is to place this type of promotional piece in newspapers for her client?

Could it be that the the Financial Post didn't do any fact checking (and simply accepted this article from a communications company) because it was submitted as a paid feature dressed up to look like a "news" story... something similar to what we saw in the Vancouver Province?

Someone out there has to step up and protect the public interest. Prominent disclaimers should be mandatory if this practice is be allowed.

When did our print and television media become an endless source of contrived "news" to promote the real estate industry?

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