Fairfax Media is selling its former Sydney and Melbourne metro print sites, but the $55 million deal is a lot more attractive than newspaper reports suggest.

Both had been cleared of plant and equipment - which made up the majority of the cost of establishing them in 1996 and 2001 - and the company had come close to selling the Tullamarine site for $25 million on two occasions.

A report in rival News Corp Australia's national masthead The Australian and largely reproduced in trade media says Fairfax paid $220m for the Tullamarine (Melbourne) facility, and spent $315 million on Chullora (Sydney) - plus a further $70 million largely on press upgrades, but these are inclusive of equipment and fit-out costs.

About half of the manroland Geoman press and Ferag mailroom equipment from Tullamarine was relocated to group plants in Ballarat (Victoria), North Richmond (NSW) and Petone (New Zealand) ahead of the site and buildings being offered for sale.

Fairfax Media spent about $42 million on the relocations and upgrades of the Ballarat and North Richmond sites - adding to their heatset printing capacity at the same time

with Fujifilm - and reckoned to get its investment back within a year. The two sites are now the main production centres for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, both of which have suffered circulation losses as readers switch to online and tablet editions. Some 2.86 million people a month now see The Age online and on mobiles and tablets, compared to 1.5 million reading a print edition, according to EMMA statistics for May.

The sale of the two sites to property group Charter Hall is subject to due digilence.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: Geoman presses from Tullamarine were relocated