Fairfax Radio earnings up

Fairfax Media have released their half-yearly results to the market this morning, showing a big fall in earnings after abnormal items are excluded.

The headline profit figure is up from $97.6m to $386m, however this includes the sale of the New Zealand 'Trade Me' business and its agricultural business in the US.

Excluding abnormal items, the earnings fell sharply to $83m, down from $136m in the previous corresponding period, and was driven by a fall of $100m in advertising revenue.

Whilst the Fairfax results overall are poor, the radio division has performed reasonably well. Fairfax Radio has improved EBITDA by 5.2% to $10.2m, off revenue growth of 4.6% to $55.1m.

In their statement to the market, Fairfax have spoken of the radio division and said there has been a signficant turnaround in advertising revenue when compared to the second half of FY12. The two stations that Fairfax have specifically noted as strong performers are 3AW Melbourne and 96FM Perth.

Notably, Fairfax have said of their talk network; "(Our) focus is now on broadening the product and audience for all news talk stations, driving greater collaboration across the radio network and greater integration with the broader Fairfax group"

See more detail in the ASX report here.