SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

“The Truth gig is over …[it] was too far gone, a legacy of the mayhem caused by David and Steve Crow” says Editor

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The Truth Newspaper to stop publishing. On a day that saw Mediaworks call in receivers, it emerged that tabloid newspaper The Truth will cease publishing after more than 125 years.

Staff at the national weekly [described recently by Winston Peters as a “scurrilous” mag ” chocker with sex adds” promoting “people trafficking”] have been told it will not publish a print edition on Thursday, and may never publish one again.

Truth, which first published 1887, was thought to have lost a major advertiser last week, prompting its owners to pull the plug.

Truth Weekender general manager Russell Beaumont told Fairfax Media “the owners and shareholders have said we should pause for a cup of tea”.

“We’re having a break, we’re not in receivership, we’re just pausing.”

All creditors and contributors would be paid, he said.

Editor Cameron Slater [photo below] had done an outstanding job since taking over last year, but attracting advertisers had proved difficult, Beaumont said.

Photo credit: http://tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/cameron-slater-1-labour-party-0.html

Cameron Slater

Cameron Slater Stuff News 17/06/13

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8806303/The-Truth-newspaper-to-stop-publishing

Slater, who also operates the controversial Right-wing blog, Whale Oil, would not confirm the closure when contacted,

referring all media  media inquiries to Dermott Malley who co-owns the paper.

Dermott Malley

Photo of Dermott Malley. Source: http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/dermott-malley/a/a32/b21

Malley said only “You want the truth from Truth? You’ll get the truth”, before ending the call.

Slater eventually wrote on his blog [www.whaleoil.co.nz] that the “gig is over” – blaming the tabloid’s demise on those that went before him.

“Some time in the future I will tell my story of  the wild ride the last six months have been…in the meantime I want to thank the editorial and production staff I worked with, you were great.

“Bottom line is that Truth was too far gone, a legacy of the mayhem caused by David and Steve Crow. Again I will leave that story for later.”

                                                                                      

 Stephen (Steve) Peter Crow  #                                             David Bruce Crow top right. Steve Crow below ## 

# Photo: 3 News.co.nz April 27, 2011.

“Porn King looses legal battle”                                                                      ##     Photo: Stuff News

The newspaper’s other owner, Matthew Horton, was not available for comment as he was on a flight from Australia.

Slater, who made a name for himself baiting Left-wing pundits on his controversial blog, was brought on as editor in October last year.

At the time he promised to reshape the “tired old business model” that had led the newspaper industry into deep decline, and planned to ditch the paper’s seedier advertising format in favour of main street advertisers

Source:

The Truth Newspaper to stop publishing

Story by Jason Krupp and Kevin Norquay. 17 June 2013. Fairfax NZ News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8806303/The-Truth-newspaper-to-stop-publishing

Cameron Slater’s Blog “New Zealand’s #1 Blog”

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/06/yup-its-true-the-truth-gig-is-over/#more-99311

For Background see:

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/liquidation-of-truth-publications-ltd-conflict-of-interests-phoenix-companies/

https://www.spcs.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Diagrams/Truth-Publications-Ltd-Diagram.pdf (dated 8/07/2010)

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/truth-publications-ltd-in-liq-outstanding-filing-obligations-re-insolvency/

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/what-is-left-for-creditors-of-truth-publications-ltd-in-liq/

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/truth-publication-in-liq-owes-622000-outstanding-filing-obligations/

Latest Assessment

Check out:

National Business Review

Truth rejuvenation became too hard – Horton.  By Georgina Bond

Republished as:

NBR gets the good oil on Truth

http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/06/nbr-gets-the-good-oil-on-truth/

Quote:

Mr Horton, who owns a 50% stake in Truth, says the newspaper had continued to lose ground with advertisers and readers over the last few years.

“It had taken a very seedy turn over the last five years and I think that probably cost the paper a lot of sales…..

Management changes earlier this year, when original owners handed over the reins to the Crow brothers David and Steve, had been disruptive.

__________

Background: From Liquidator’s First Report. Filed with on Companies Office website on 09/07/13

In 2011 Multimedia Solutions Limited purchased adultspace.co.nz and arranged for Truth Weekender Limited to manage this site.

At the end of May 2012 Pravda Limited, owned by David Bruce Crow, purchased 50% of the shareholding in Truth Weekender Limited and he became the sole director.

In March 2013 David Crow resigned as a director and his shares were transferred to Onyx Capital Limited. Dermott Malley was then appointed director.

A major advertiser withdrew their support in June 2013 and Dermott Malley made the decision to cease to trade

Steve Crow, banned company director, promotes porn sleaze on city streets

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On Wednesday 11th August at 12.30 pm banned company director Steve Crow and Miss Erotica 2010 will be heading a parade of scorpion tanks, motorcycles with bare-breasted pillions and vehicles down Queen Street Auckland – in order to promote Crow’s failing hardcore pornography empire. Eden Digital Ltd directed by John Malcolm Carr, a San Antonio Texas based CPA, is the business entity linked to the parade of tawdry titillation that promotes a forthcoming three day event – Erotica Lifestyles Expo – featuring a collection of imported US-based porn stars, sex toys and lewd acts. On Thursday 12th August at 12.30 pm the same boringly predictable parade will head through Hamilton city streets.

Steve Crow is intending to hand out $250,000 worth of free vouchers to those attending the porn parades, so they can purchase hard core pornography DVDs marketed by his failing business Vixen Direct. [Read more…]

Public need protection from directors with a history of unsuccessful ventures

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Section 385 of the Companies Act 1993 empowers the Ministry of Economic Development to ban company directors for up to five years who have a history of unsuccessful ventures. David Bruce Crow of Inglewood is sole director of Buildwise Ltd (In Liq) and also directs 435 Devon Ltd which faces imminent strike off from the Companies Office Register because of his failure to file the company’s annual return that was due on 30 April 2010. Here is yet another unsuccessful business venture involving one of the Crow brothers that appears soon to be hitting the proverbial fan and splattering its detritus and entrails around the legal and business community in New Plymouth. (Both David and Steve Crow were directors of 435 Devon Ltd when in purchased the New Plymouth RSA Devon Street property for $1.9M).

Unpaid creditors such as the  New Plymouth and District’s Returned and Services Association Inc. owed over $50,000 in unpaid interest on a $1.525 Million second mortgage and PMIT Nominees Ltd owed about two months interest on a $375,000 first mortgage they provided, could both well be left high and dry surrounded by detritus and debt entrails.

Conceptual Drawings adorn the 435 Devon Ltd website – seeking to paste a veneer over the vast cracks that hold the masonary of hubris and bravado together. Even a three year old -out-of-date – logo of an Architecture firm is affixed to each “concept plan” and the claim is made that ” The Architects are currently working on conceptual drawings with a number of options being considered”. One wonders if they have ever been paid. This firm has had no involvement in the project for about three years.

Stephen (Steve) Peter Crow who owns 50% of the shares of 435 Devon Ltd has claimed on national TV that hundreds of thousands of dollars of his and his brother’s money has been spent on architecture plans for the 435 Devon Street property that the company purchased for $1.9 Million. The planned Crow complex was called “Te Ara” (translated “The Pathway”). A better translation might well be, according to one local Maori elder: “The path to liquidation or receivership and a director’s banning”.

ASB Showgrounds host Porn Promo Sleaze and Steve Crow’s Insolvent Erotica Expo

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The Society has raised serious concerns directly with ASB Showgrounds CEO Mark Frankham and his management team over their decision to allow the venue to be hired by an insolvent hardcore porn promo company – Erotica Expo Ltd – that was placed into liquidation on 27 May 2009 under the name Malibu Media Ltd. In a hostile move designed to stiffle freedom of expression, its former director Porn King Steve Crow threatens to throw any person out of the porn sleaze ASB venue who dares to record any image using a camera, video or pxt phone; and threatens to strip them of any electronic device film/memory card, should such images be recorded. The Society’s letter has yet to be answered by the management board which the Society has been informed has met to consider its concerns and will do so again on Monday next week. Management will be aware that it is a serious breach of the Companies Act 1993 for a company director to attempt to carry on trading when his company is in liquidation and/or use the name of an unregistered company for the purposes of trading. The Society’s letter to ASB Showground management is set out below.

[Read more…]

Porn King Steve Crow Double Crosses RSA Members over Erotica Lifestyles Expo venue – RSA stalwarts ‘turn in their graves’

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Porn King Steve Crow was a guest speaker at the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business After 5 function at the New Plymouth RSA on Wednesday 26th August 2009. It appears that he failed to tell the whole truth when he told more than 100 people in attendance that the RSA Strandon Clubrooms at 435 Devon Street East, purchased by a company of which he is the major shareholder (50%) and was co-director of up until his resignation on 12 November 2008, would never be used for “anything at all to do with the sex industry”. However, since the 27th of August he has been advertising the “Te Ara Centre” (the new title he has given to the RSA Clubrooms), as the venue for his forthcoming three day Sleaze Porn Promo Show in November, which he markets as Erotica Lifestyles Expo via a website. His risible claims of honest transparency with RSA members and the business community were quoted in the Taranaki Daily News:

“Let’s firstly put a few rumours to bed, and then explain what our plans are for this beautiful site. What we are not doing is converting the place into a brothel, or a strip club, or an adult shop, or anything at all to do with the sex industry… And the Crows are also not taking all the money out of the project. Now that’s a real joke. The fact is we’ve already put a lot of money into this project, and we have committed a lot more.”

Photo: Stuff News

Stephen Peter Crow (Steve Crow), [photo above] his brother David Bruce Crow [top right] and wife Carolyn Rose Crow, are all part of a business partnership – 435 Devon Limited (Co. No. 1951732) – that bought the RSA’s property for $1.9 million when both men were directors.

[Read more…]