Truth publisher owes $622,000

The 105-year-old NZ Truth has had its day but the Truth Weekender has risen from the ashes.

The publisher of tabloid newspaper NZ Truth has gone into liquidation owing lenders and creditors more than $600,000.

A related party of Truth Publications called in liquidators Meltzer Mason Heath in September to find out how much the company would be worth after Truth stopped trading on August 31.

A decision was then made to liquidate the company and sell its assets to the company's masthead owner, Multimedia Solutions, for $70,000.

The owners of Multimedia Solutions include businesses associated with Dermott Malley and John Pin, who were both directors and indirect shareholders in Truth Publications.

Multimedia Solutions now operates a publication called Truth Weekender which comes out on a Friday instead of NZ Truth which was published on Thursdays. But a report by liquidator Lloyd Hayward released late last week found creditors are unlikely to be paid.

"It is unlikely there will be a distribution to creditors," he said.

Unsecured creditors and subordinated lenders are owed $622,074 and include New Zealand Couriers, Warehouse Stationery, Vodafone, Mercury Energy and the New Zealand Herald.

Hayward said the directors had put the company into liquidation because poor trading conditions meant it could not meet its security arrangements or the licence agreement and that saw the masthead licence terminated.

NZ Truth was first published in 1904 and according to its website had a readership of 90,000.