Australian publisher Fairfax Media has announced a big drop in earnings for its masthead newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald as the Australian economy slides towards recession.

Revenue at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (collectively Fairfax Sydney and Melbourne metropolitan newspapers) reported a 23.8% slide in EBIDTA off the back of a 5% drop in revenue for the period July to December 2008. Advertising revenue was down 9%; segmented data was not provided. The company said in a statement that display advertising in Melbourne was “up strongly.”

The result was worse across the Tasman, with Fairfax New Zealand Publishing report a 28.6% drop. Fairfax regional and community papers reported a 9% drop, and Fairfax Australian printing and Specialist Publications (including the Australian Financial Review) both dropped 13.9%.

The only bright spot for Fairfax was online, which saw a 13.3% rise for the half.

The company also announced a $447.5 million AUD ($288 million USD) write down in its assets.

Full release here.

(via Mumbrella)

Fairfax Newspapers down 23.8%, big write down in valuations is a post from: The Inquisitr

Fairfax Digital acquired a 75 per cent stake with founder Mark Hardy holding the remaining shares and will stay on in the role of Managing Director.

The bulk of The Weather Company business comes from commercial provision of weather data to organizations in the energy, insurance, telecommunications, retail, rural/ agricultural and media sectors. Clients including Network Ten, ABC, Elders, Ninemsn and AGL.

Weatherzone.com.au is best summarized as Australia’s own version of Weather.com. The site offers extensive forecast data, and various tools that allow Australian’s to acquire weather updates in a range of formats. According to Alexa, the site is ranked as the 239th most popular site in Australia.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Fairfax Digital Acquires The Weather Company is a post from: The Inquisitr