A marketing campaign has started to sell New Zealand's biggest book retailing chains, Whitcoulls, Borders New Zealand and Bennetts.

Profits at The Warehouse have fallen 9 per cent.

What went wrong at Whitcoulls?

It is a truism in the publishing industry that very few Kiwis get rich by writing a book.

Paul Harper gets his first look inside Christchurch's stricken CBD - and is shocked by what he sees.

Richard Ballantyne, of Ballantyne's department store, says there had been concerns about the central district even before the first earthquake in September.

REDgroup's unsecured New Zealand creditors were owed $21.5 million when the company went into voluntary administration.

Booksellers Whitcoulls and Borders went into administration last week with $2.9 million in the bank, according to a report by administrator Ferrier Hodgson.

Christchurch's small CBD traders will be forced out to fringe areas like Riccarton, Addington and Sydenham, says one property expert.

Central Christchurch is facing financial oblivion, a local business leader says.