Fairfax Media says revenue is set to drop by $93.6 million in the second half of the financial year as trading conditions remain difficult.

Revenue for the six months to June 30 is expected to be eight per cent lower than in the same period in the previous year, chief executive Greg Hywood said on Tuesday.

Revenue in the same half last year was $1.17 billion, indicating second half revenue in 2011/12 would be about $1.076 billion.

Media companies have been hit by weak advertising markets, and Mr Hywood indicated there had been no material improvement since the beginning of the calendar year.

“At the half year results announcement on 23 February, I advised that January 2012 revenues were 7.5 per cent below the corresponding prior period and that the difficult trading environment was likely to continue,” Mr Hywood said in a statement.

“This trading environment has continued.”

Fairfax posted revenue of $1.23 billion in the first half of the 2011/12 financial year, meaning full year revenue is likely to be down 6.6 per cent from the previous year’s $2.47 billion.

Mr Hywood also said underlying earnings for the year to June 30 were expected to be about $500 million, down from $607.4 million in the previous year.

Fairfax owns The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Financial Review newspapers, plus radio stations including 2UE in Sydney, 3AW in Melbourne and 4BC in Brisbane.

It is undertaking a three-year savings program to cut $170 million in costs, which most recently involved the outsourcing of 66 sub-editing jobs to New Zealand.

Its full year net profit is expected to be significantly lower than underlying earnings due to one-off items associated with the cost savings.

Fairfax shares closed flat at 60 cents on Tuesday.