Fairfax profits improve but revenues drop

Tim Burrowes

August 27, 2010 9:20

Fairfax Media has signalled a return to profit with an improved set of figures across the board, although overall revenues have dropped.

The media company – whose mastheads include the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – announced this morning that it’s EBITDA profits (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) had risen by 7% to $639m compared to the same time last year.

Overall revenue was down 2% to $2.48bn.

The most impressive number was the change in the company’s net profit after tax, which recovered for a loss of $380.1m last year (which came in part from writedowns of the value of its assetts) to +$282.1m. However, that figure is still well behind the company’s $386.9m profit the year before that.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.