Business conditions in early 2010 have begun to return to normalcy following the global financial crisis, says Australian media company APN News & Media Ltd.

APN Chief Executive Brendan Hopkins is hopeful that 2010 will be a better year for his company in terms of trading.

In the company's annual report, which was published this Tuesday, Hopkins wrote, "Forward bookings suggest an improved revenue performance, coupled with APN's high operating leverage and ongoing tight cost controls, gives us confidence the year will deliver a better result for shareholders".

Mr. Hopkins revealed that forward bookings in the month of April were "comfortably" ahead of the prior year.

The APN Chief Executive said that he was looking positively towards the coming months of 2010 with optimism and is expecting to report better outcome as the year progresses.

23 regional daily newspapers are circulated by APN, while in excess of 100 non-daily titles are circulated in Australia and New Zealand by the media company.

The company, which also has a chain of radio stations, had a reported net profit of $92.63 million for the year 2009.