How the media is reporting the Fairfax figures

Tim Burrowes

February 23, 2009 2:17

As Mumbrella reported earlier today, Fairfax Media has written down the value of its mastheads by nearly half a billion dollars in its half yearly results.

But its results are just good enough to stave off a collapse in the company’s already weak share price, says Tim Boreham in The Australian:

“McCarthy did what every CEO under the pump should do and channelled the Winston Churchill spirit. ‘For now, we have battened down the hatches and we will ride this storm out,’ he declared. Fairfax shares bounced up and down by a few cents this morning: there wasn’t enough bad news to force the already pummelled share price much lower, but not enough good tidings to encourage a bounce.”

And Stephen Bartholomeusz in Business Spectator takes a similarly temperate view:

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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.