Fairfax Media Ltd., Australia's second-largest newspaper owner, had a first-half loss of A$365.3 million ($235 million) after incurring a writedown on licenses, Bloomberg reported.
Sales rose 0.5 percent to A$1.44 billion, the Sydney-based publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review and Melbourne's the Age newspaper, said today in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.
Fairfax took a A$447.5 million writedown on the value of its newspaper mastheads and licenses and had a A$62.4 million restructuring and redundancy charge, according to the statement.
Chief Executive Officer Brian McCarthy, who took over in December, faces the task of reviving earnings growth as advertising revenue from newspapers declines. Fairfax has cut workers and sold its Southern Star television and distribution business to lower costs.
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