ELEANOR HALL: Fairfax Media shareholders received another dose of grim news at the company's annual general meeting in Sydney today.

The company's chief executive, Greg Hywood, told investors that while the company continues to produce high quality journalism, weak advertising revenue is delivering challenges.

But the Fairfax board did make some big concessions on executive pay to avoid another shareholder protest vote.

Our business editor Peter Ryan is at the Fairfax AGM and he joins us now.

So Peter, first to these concessions. Will they be enough to see the Fairfax board sidestep another protest vote?

PETER RYAN: Well, Eleanor the venue for today's annual general meeting is perhaps the sign of that. I'm at the Sydney Masonic Centre in downtown Sydney which is quite a modest venue compared to last year's annual general meeting, which was at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne.

But as you mentioned the Fairfax Media board has been under a lot of pressure since that AGM in Melbourne last year, where there was a 35 per cent protest vote driven by the biggest shareholder Gina Rinehart against the company's executive remuneration plan.

At that meeting Roger Corbett actually took a pay cut on the floor, and since then chief executive Greg Hywood's annual pay deal has dropped to $1.9 million.

Now during the year Fairfax's share price has fallen to a low of 37 cents a share, although today it is around 57 cents, and there was a slight fall after investors were told revenues were down 6 per cent to date.

So today the chairman, Roger Corbett, had little choice when he updated investors on an executive pay deal that promised what he called challenging, absolute share holder returns.

ROGER CORBETT: Unless we deliver at least a 15 per cent per annum compound total shareholder return, executives will receive no benefit. For all the options to invest, we must achieve a 25 per cent per annum compound total shareholder return. The milestones are based on earnings, revenue, cost reduction and other strategic targets.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the Fairfax chairman, Roger Corbett.

Now Peter, Fairfax has gone through a dramatic transformation, you know, shedding more than a thousand employees. Did the board have anything positive to say about this?

PETER RYAN: Well, the board is doing its best to be positive. It's really only at this point the chairman Roger Corbett, who's been speaking but the chief executive Greg Hywood, who has been a lifelong Fairfax employee was doing his best today to be upbeat and positive. But he's dealing with a situation where there's more than 1,000 journalists jobs having gone, the metropolitan mastheads, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year went to a compact, or what we might call tabloid formats. And there's been a, more recently, a controversial merging of business coverage between the Financial Review, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Hywood also said this morning he was concerned that the post-federal election advertising cycle was not proving to be as robust as he had hoped, with bookings remaining pretty short and disability limited. He also noted that revenue at Fairfax's metro media division are done by 9 per cent.

But Greg Hywood reminded investors when it comes to quality journalism, Fairfax Media is continuing to break the big and important stories.

GREG HYWOOD: Over the past 12 months Fairfax journalism has packed a significant punch. We prompted a Royal Commission into sex abuse, we've uncovered chronic government corruption in New South Wales, we've revealed the rule breaking and covert drug taking program at an AFL club. We've revealed allegations of bribery inside one of the nation's largest construction.

Our journalism is stronger than ever.

ELEANOR HALL: That's the Fairfax chief executive, Greg Hywood.

Peter, what have Fairfax shareholders though been telling the board, particularly about the role of the chairman Roger Corbett?

PETER RYAN: Well Eleanor, they're quite unsettled, but not quite as unsettled as they were last year in Melbourne. But Stephen Mayne, the shareholder activist now also with the Australian Shareholders Association was quite upfront. He wanted to know about board renewal, in particular when or if the chairman Roger Corbett might be hanging up his corporate gloves in the Fairfax Media boardroom.

Mr Corbett has obviously been under a lot of pressure, said that he wouldn't be staying in that boardroom as chairman for a millisecond longer than he had to. But it'll be interesting to see how this plays out this afternoon and whether or not the second strike, which could prompt a boardroom spill, will be avoided. That's looking positive at the moment and shareholders will be casting their votes late this afternoon.

ELEANOR HALL: Peter Ryan, our business editor at that Fairfax AGM.