Despite a number of high profile executives leaving the company in the recent months, Fairfax chief Greg Hywood has voiced his confidence in his company’s robustness.

 

Mr Hywood has said that Fairfax and APN News & Media are constantly subject to undervaluing and short selling through hedge fund betting.

 

Shares in Fairfax have hinged between a high of $1.40 at the start of the year before falling to as low as 69 ¢. Fairfax is currently operating at the low 80 ¢ mark.

 

“My message to the US hedge funds is: beware - you are wrong,” Mr Hywood said.

 

“What the market is judging the future of our industry to be is wrong,'' he told the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association conference in Sydney. ''It is more than just wrong, it's complete nonsense.”

 

Mr Hywood has said the spate of newspaper collapses in the US will not foreshadow a similar collapse in the Australian industry because of a strong online presence.

 

Mr Hywood took direct aim at the culture of negativity that has been haunting print media over the recent years, saying that the ‘endless debate about whether or not you are going to die, it’s a bit depressing’.

 

Mr Hywood’s confidence in Fairfax’s online division comes after the online advertising market in Australia topped $3 billion in worth.