…you’ve come to the right place. Here’s a mail received from A. Reader recently (for obvious reasons, not even the initials this time). I think we’ll just go with it as stands (very slightly edited to protect both guilty and innocent alike). Note that I have no way of fact-checking the contents but it all passes the smell test with flying colours, so I say publish and be damned.
“…The Gold Report (TGR) is not what
it was. It was never some shining light of mining journalism but it used
to interview respectable analysts and even some respectable newsletter
writers. Not anymore, just friends and family. This time last
year there were 35 employees, now there are less than 10. Executive
editor JT Long was let go in mid February. Former TGR publisher Jason
Mallin was let go in late October. He’s been replaced by Paul Guedes,
formerly of the Grosso Group. Interviews, although always
sponsor-friendly, are now exclusively with FOG (friends of Gordon
Holmes). That’s one reason why it’s become The Michael Ballanger Report
lately.At its peak, TGR had almost 200 sponsors. It now has around 60 (but even that may be somewhat optimistic). Holmes is also working on some content by James West, who with the help of Post Media has resurrected the dubious Midas Letter. Holmes is fighting with his partner Karen Roche for control of Streetwise. He’s basically low-balling her on a buyout offer. And the lease on its office space in Petaluma is up in July.”