Of all the brands and mastheads under the Fairfax umbrella, there was only one chief executive Greg Hywood wanted to talk about when the media group announced its first half results.
And that's Domain.
The real estate advertising business is currently Fairfax's number one priority and dominated Mr Hywood's spiel to investors and analysts on Thursday.
"Our focus in the second half is on continuing Domain's momentum, delivering growth options across the business, both organic and acquired, while delivering further sustained cost reduction," he said.
Fairfax is spending up big on Domain as it stages a fight-back against realestate.com.au, which has dominated the online real estate ad market for more than a decade.
The company has spent more than $150 million to buying up smaller regional real estate players - including Allhomes in Canberra and the remaining 50 per cent of Victoria's Metro Media Publishing - as it expands Domain's national reach.
The focus on Domain is not surprising given the challenges faced by Fairfax's traditional publishing business, which continues to deal with falling circulation and advertising volumes.
Fairfax's half year profit slumped 86 per cent to $23.6 million, due chiefly to asset writedowns and redundancy costs.
Earnings from its core metro media division rose four per cent as an increase in digital subscriptions helped offset a 10 per cent decline in print advertising.
It also appeased investors by announcing plans to buy back around five per cent of its shares on market.
Veteran media analyst Steve Allen, from Fusion Strategy, said Fairfax's plans for Domain were part of a broader strategy to beef up the profile of a string of brands - including Good Food and Traveller - that were previously contained within the Sydney Morning Herald or the Age mastheads.
"They've got a number of these assets that they are looking to build into something more substantial, both in print and online," he said.
He said Domain was unlikely to take away realestate.com.au's crown, but could be a successful business in its own right.
"We would never expect them to take REA, it would take a pretty poor reign from an REA chief executive, and an REA chief executive wouldn't last very long if they got things wrong," he said.
"But it'll be a competitive brand."
Fairfax has also been diversifying into new businesses, including a joint venture to launch an Australian website for the Huffington Post and partnering with Nine Entertainment Company on streaming on demand business Stan.
Mr Hywood on Thursday said Stan, which launched in late January, was on track to have 100,000 subscribers by mid-March, when US giant Netflix is due to launch its Australian service.
FAIRFAX REVENUE, PROFIT SLIDES
* Net profit of $26.3m, down 86pct from $193.8m
* Total revenue of $943.3m, down 13pct from $1.08b
* Interim dividend unchanged at two cents per share
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