Newspaper publisher Fairfax has posted an annual loss of $63.8 million, in what is expected to be its last results before being taken over by Nine.

This is a sharp reversal from last year, when an $83.9 million net profit was reported by the publisher of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review.

Fairfax said this was largely due to $188.7m worth of losses after it wrote down the value of its regional news network Australian Community Media and the New Zealand digital news website Stuff.

Even when those significant expenses are stripped out, the publisher's underlying net profit was $124.9m, down 12.4 per cent on last year.

Australia's oldest publisher will cease to exist after 177 years after the takeover, and its assets will be subsumed by the nation's first television station.

Fairfax's revenue has fallen steadily as advertisers divert their spending to online giants like Facebook and Google, which offer individually targeted advertising.

Pre-tax earnings from its Australian Metro Media division, which handles its newspaper publishing, lifted 8 per cent.

One of Fairfax's best-performing division was real estate listings business Domain, of which it owns a 60 per cent stake.

Domain's digital revenue rose 20 per cent, but its print revenue fell 13 per cent.

Earlier this week, Domain reported a 120 per cent drop in annual profit due to $23.5 million in rebranding and write-downs.

As a sign of tougher financial pressure, Fairfax agreed to share printing facilities with competitor News Corp last month.

The deal is expected to save Fairfax $15 million in the latter half of the 2019 financial year.

The company will pay its shareholders a final dividend of 1.8 cents per share, 50 per cent franked.

Fairfax stocks fell as much as 4.5 per cent in early trade, its biggest percentage fall since late-July.

Its share price has since moderated, down 0.3 per cent to 88.7 cents at 12:00pm (AEST).