Fairfax Media Ltd. foresees further earnings growth in the second half of fiscal 2010 after reporting profitability in the first half triggered by reduction in costs and improving advertising markets.

The diversified media company registered a net profit of $148.81 million for the six months to December 27, 2009, which was a spectacular improvement on the $364.84 million loss posted in the first half of fiscal 2009, when the company wrote down the value of its mastheads and booked restructuring and redundancy charges.

Fairfax Chief Executive Brian McCarthy quoted, "We're only six or seven weeks into the second half so there is a long way to go, so I am very reluctant to say this is a permanent trend".

It witnessed its net profit to rise by 5.6 percent, even though total revenue declined by 12.8 percent to $A1.26 billion, on an underlying basis.

However, in New Zealand the media arm's profit of $A38m was 27.8 percent down on the same half in the previous year as revenue dipped 12 percent to $A195.5m.

Fairfax declared an interim divided of 1.1 cents per share, down from two cents in the previous first half.