You might recall that, a while back, I really ripped into Moneyville.ca. Moneyville is the Toronto Star‘s personal finance website and newspaper section (the latter is carried in Monday’s paper). As I pointed out in my article, “Moneyville’s Junk Advice“, I swear I generally like the site — my sensationalist headline aside. I’ve read it on a daily basis (excluding weekends) since the website’s inception. But Moneyville had started devolving into something really awful.
Here were my three criticisms of the site in my highly-critical (but lovingly written) original post:
- Moneyville lacked regular content by Ellen Roseman who is consistently amazing (I finally met her and got a picture with her!);
- Moneyville pumped out puff pieces about Canada’s inflated real estate bubble (these often featured interviews with perma-useless Realtors and biased bank economists); and
- Moneyville ran some terrible advice articles by Madhavi Acharya Tom-Yew and Krystal Yee.
Speaking of Krystal Yee, I met her at CPFC 2012. Shockingly, she did not immediately/deservedly punch me in the face. She is a major sweetheart who dislikes photos:
I’m not the kind of person to retract legitimate criticism, and I won’t. It seemed like the perfect time, however, to talk about the ways that Moneyville has improved, because it has. (By the way, I’m not pretentious enough to think that my tiny blog swayed the editorial direction of Moneyville. It was just one small part of a large discourse.) Unlike writers in more serious mediums, I have the luxury of revisiting old topics to indulge my self-delusion of even-handedness.
Corresponding with the numerical order of my original criticisms, here’s how I think Moneyville has improved:
1) Ellen Roseman is writing for Moneyville much more often.
2) The real estate puff pieces continue, albeit at a slower pace. While Moneyville doesn’t attack Canadians’ hegemonic fixation on the ‘home’ as investment supreme, it’s on par with most of Canada’s slow-witted media (slow-witted in regard to real estate; I’m sure if Rob Ford brought a bucket of KFC to council, The Star would break the scandal before he could finish eating it — which is, by the way, really fast — despite the diminutive Star reporter’s presumably quick retreat from the all-consuming, blathering black-hole that is the Mayor’s mouth). If I want to risk seeing occasional, subversive thoughtcrimes against Canada’s HGTV Condo Jugend, the Granite Counter-top Stasi, or the Realtor SS, I’ll read The Globe and Mail (which is thoughtfully peppered with moronic real estate pumper pieces to, I assume, cloak the intelligent material written by folks like Rob Carrick). If I dare read unadulterated wisdom, I turn to Garth Turner’s Greater Fool blog.
Did I sound like Rex Murphy in the last paragraph? That’s what I was going for.
A general respect for readers does seem to prevail in the Moneyville real estate section — if not high-quality investigative journalism. When there was a “BUY NOW OR YOU’LL BE PRICED OUT FOREVER” article (typical of the press releases scrawled by Toronto Star “journalist” Susan Pigg), Nelson and I pointed out that the article was drivel. In fact, it was worse than drivel. Susan cited plummeting sales figures as proof that real estate was continuing on its eternal upswing. She checked her facts by interviewing a Realtor.
Then a Christmas miracle happened. I checked the article later (I was going to rip on it on Twitter again) and it was completely modified. It had a new headline that wasn’t stupid, the Realtor’s spew was buried deeper in the article, and it featured more balanced content. It was a puff piece, but it was different: it didn’t make me feel embarrassed for the profession of journalism. It was the kind of journalism where, in a misguided effort to give balance to a story, the side of the story that is completely stupid gets equal consideration from the reporter. It was biased, but not brain-melting. I could critically engage with the piece, rather than feeling numbed by its sheer stupidity. Think “CNN” rather than “Fox News” (or “MSNBC”).
The editor of Moneyville, Adam Mayer, briefly shared his thoughts about housing at CPFC12. He said he thinks that the Toronto housing market (or, at least, the condo market) is in serious trouble. I wish his intelligent opinions were reflected on Moneyville. They’re not. That’s fine — I doubt his analysis would be appreciated by major advertisers like CREA, the Big Five Banks, or the Guv’ment. I get it. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Speaking of which:
| Get Canada’s best Credit Card deal, the Smart Cash MasterCard® Credit Card, today! |
3) Since I picked on Madhavi and poor Krystal, there have been significant developments.
Sometime after Madhavi’s “I bought a huge expensive house during a real estate bubble, dumped my cheaper two bedroom condo, consolidated yet more irresponsibly-acquired debt into my mortgage, spent $1000 to move 5 kilometers, and furnished my house with full-MSRP furniture on the Leon’s buy-now-pay-later loan“-gate scandal, her blog switched its focus to more innocuous topics. Subjects included “get a will”, “start saving early”, and “online personal finance resources”. Then, circa August, her Moneyville blog updates ceased. Mercifully. I notice that she’s writing articles for The Star, which is great. I never questioned her competence as a journo. There’s a massive difference between writing news stories and dispensing money advice.
Krystal, on the other hand, still writes for Moneyville. She also continues to write her own personal finance blog and she started a new one about travel. Her Moneyville articles have improved a lot. She doesn’t center every article on a piece of advice and, when she does, she no longer recommends tying a financial millstone around your neck. I will say that I am sorry for one line in the original article where I said she’s on…
a mid-life-crisis-esque romp in Euro-Utopia (presumably only second to her paradise home province of BC)
I’m not sorry because the statement was mean; this is easily cancelled out by its hilarity. I’m sorry because I was wrong. She’s turning her travel into a sustainable lifestyle using her travel blog and her incredible freelancing work ethic. Also I’m sorry I didn’t crack a Rumspringa joke. Note that in my conversation with Krystal I did my pretend-journalist duty by asking her about her car (see the original article). I verified that I was, in fact, correct on that point.
I certainly concur on Ellen Roseman. She is a gem among consumer journalists.
She’s super nice in person, too!
Unfortunately the star now has an integrity score equal to that of any “National Enquirer” type newspaper. The recent elections proved how low that paper has sunk. They continue to do so today. Unfortunately good people like Ellen and Krystal write in one section of a poor newspaper. I had a free subscription for a trial. (I can’t imagine anyone wasting even a penny buying the Star) I would take out the business section and throw away the rest of the paper without so much as a glance. Maybe Ellen should contact “Canadian Moneysaver” and see if she could be a regular there.
LOL well, I won’t go so far as calling The Star a rag. But I saw a certain amount of ignorance reflected in their pieces related to my Employer’s bargaining with my Union. I’m fine with McGuinty’s vaunted “pay freeze”. The trouble is, the Employer has demanded other concessions (for example, cutting certain Employees’ vacation entitlements from 15 days to 5.5 days. Yes, you read that right — almost half the Employment Standards Act minimum. How is that legal? Well, the Gov exempts itself from the ESA) and they negotiated an agreement that DIDN’T involve an actual pay freeze! Meanwhile, The Star continues to bubble on about how Rob Ford is fat but ignores Dalton McGuinty’s clear and consistent lies.
Good points again,
In past years when I read some of the articles I felt like some of the thoughts that were penned were so alien that the writers must have dropped in from another planet. The Heather Malik commentary about Mr. Ford before the elections was the final straw for me. Too bad Rob couldn’t give an eloquent retort like “Jennifer the Anchorwoman” yesterday when the Star picked on his weight.
Hah, that’s so cool you met so many famous people. I definitely want to attend a CPFC some day. I don’t read moneyville as often as I would like to. More of a globeandmail type of person I guess. I like their globe investor section. Ellen Roseman is a great writer. She has her own blog as well which is worth checking out if you’re a fan :0) It’s just her full name, dot com.
I like Rob Carrick a lot, too. He calls the housing bubble for what it is, which is rare among Canadian journalists. And yeah, I really like Ellen’s blog I just don’t check it out often enough because of its irregularity.
Yah Carrick is my boy too as far as personal finance goes in major newspapers. I think it’s big of you to follow up on a popular article where you got major heat for dissing a few authors specifically, and show that they are improving. My favorite part of the article is the interesting calculation that hilarity can cancel out meanness! Do you think it was your criticism that got the Star’s attention?
At the time, there was a massive backlash in the comments (and I assume letters to the editor etc) against all of the tomfoolery. If me cracking jokes changed editorial policies, I’m pretty sure every newspaper in Canada would be called the Joe Wood Daily Rag. lol. Krystal read it, but I think that’s about it.
I totally agree with the Ellen comment.
Hey now, Krystal is so nice, and a good writer! Shame on you
Hey, it takes balls to be honest – I commend you for speaking your mind. Well done man.
Thanks! lol Krystal was too funny. Good times, looking forward to CPFC 2013!
Can moneyville do an article on ”’CAN A NON-RESIDENT CANADIAN BUY CANDIAN
DIVIDEND PAYING STOCKS, THROUGH A BROKERAGE IN BAHAMAS, OR OTHER
COUNTRYS,,, —OR—- COULD A NO-RESIDENT CANADIAN OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN
CANADA WITH SAY T.D. WATERHOUSE ”’WITHOUT LOSING THEIR NON-RESIDENT
STATUS ??? MANY CANADIANS LIVING IN PANAMA,, BELEIZE,, MEXICO ,,HAVE
ASKED THIS QUESTION AND THERE APPEARS TO BE NO ONE WHO CAN GIVE A
STRAIGHT ANSWER,, ALSO IN COLOMBIA THERE ARE A NUMBER OF CANADIAN
NON-RESIDENCE,,
First, don’t use capslock. It may be CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL but it is annoying to read.
Second, this isn’t Moneyville. Have you written the TO Star?
Third, Moneyville has actually been closed in favour of a TO Star Personal Finance section.
Fourth, the definitive source is the investment companies you want to deal with and the government (particularly the feds e.g. Citizenship Canada but also possibly organizations like your provincial health insurance). If you’re asking them and you can’t get a straight answer I’d be worried.
Fifth, if you have money to invest abroad why don’t you approach a lawyer to get the question answered? I’d much rather pay $500 to a lawyer than blindly trust a newspaper story and possibly lose my non-residence status or whatever.
Sixth, I wouldn’t give you advice even if I was qualified (I’m not) because you’re not particularly polite and the entire situation sounds sketchier than things I’d be interested in advising on.