News: NEC UPDATE 1-Australia's Fairfax Media looks to new media era after profit miss

(Updates segment results, adds CEO quotes, dividend, background)

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest newspaper publisher, Fairfax Media Ltd (FXJ) , posted a 12.4 percent fall in underlying net profit on Wednesday, missing forecasts as advertising sales declined.

Underlying net profit was A$124.9 million ($90.5 million) for the year ended June 25, compared with A$142.6 million a year ago, the company said. The company was expected to post an underlying net profit of A$129.8 million, according to the average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and other mastheads has been in steady decline as advertisers redirect their spending to online giants like Facebook Inc FB.O and Alphabet's Google inc GOOGL.O .

Following a relaxation of Australia's media ownership rules, the 177-year-old company agreed last month to a A$2.16 billion buyout from television broadcaster Nine Entertainment Co Holdings (NEC) .

Chief Executive Greg Hywood said in a statement that consolidation "provided enormous potential to leverage increased scale of audiences and marketing inventory to grow our assets".

EBITDA growth from the newspaper's Australia metropolitan media division, it's biggest earner, rose 8 percent for the year, Fairfax said.

Fairfax's real estate classifieds spin-off, Domain Holdings Australia (DHG) , saw digital revenue grow 20 percent, although print revenue dropped 13 percent.

In an earlier sign of the financial pressure on Fairfax, the company formed a once-unthinkable alliance with News Corp NWSA.O , in which the country's top two newspaper firms would share printing presses. Fairfax has said it expects the move to save it A$15 million annually.

Fairfax announced a final dividend of 1.8 cents per share. ($1 = 1.3475 Australian dollars)