It turned out that the reporters at the Edmonton Sun were paying for a management spy out of their own pockets. Every year there was a Story of the Year award. It was usually a team effort and the prize money was shared between the reporters involved. The winners usually included one guy who as far as I knew had contributed nothing. But I wasn't involved, so how would I know? Then there was a winning story I was involved in that I knew this guy had made no meaningful contribution. But around then the guy had blown his cover anyway. There was a leaving do at a pub at which it became clear that the reason for the departure was a certain boss. Many others at the pub that night had their own stories about this boss guy's incompetence and sexual harassment. Next day the big boss knew a lot about what was said in the pub. But the odd thing was he only knew what was said after a certain person arrived at the pub - you guessed it, the fellah who regularly shared in the prize money pot despite not working on the winning story of the year. It turned out one of the perks of being a management spy was being put on the list of prize winners for Story of the Year. If he hadn't been, then the real contributors would have one less person to split the prize money with.