Sensis owner Platinum Equity could be a buyer of Fairfax Media's regional newspapers, according to reports.

Talks, reported in today's Australian newspaper could lead to the entry of a new player in the country's newsmedia industry in the form of US-based Platinum Equity, which owns 70 per cent of former Telstra directories business Sensis.

It could also be a potential buyer for APN News & Media's Australian Regional Media business if an agreed sale to News Corp Australia were knocked back by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission.

APN - which makes much of its money from radio and outdoor advertising - has declared its intention to exit newsmedia to focus on more profitable markets. And in New Zealand, a deal to merge its former NZME publishing business (formerly Wilson & Horton) with Fairfax Media New Zealand is currently before regulators. Dual-listed NZME was spun out of APN News & Media in June.

Jake Mitchell, a reporter on News Corp Australia's The Australian said today that Platinum had held talks with Fairfax about its Australian Community Media division "in recent months".

He quotes a source that "while a deal is not... imminent", a divestment of the division - including dailies the Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and Illawarra Mercury, and agricultural weekly The Land, and mostly acquired with the 2007 Rural Press merger - was logical for Fairfax. A Fairfax spokeswoman told the newspaper there was "nothing to say on the topic".

Full-year results for Fairfax are due tomorrow; those for News Corp were published today, and show a 65 per cent drop in profits from its 'news and information' division, partly offset by an increase in profits from real estate publishing.

News has agreed to pay $36.6 million for the APN regionals, about twice what it made in 2015. Mitchell says the same calculation would put the value of the Fairfax regionals at $150-200 million. Private equity firm Platinum paid $454 million for its controlling share in Sensis, which publishes White and Yellow Pages in Australia, and has since set about transforming the business to digital.

• The ACCC's review of the News Corp acquisition of APN ARM began on August 1, with August 15 set for last submissions. September 22 has been set as a provisional date for announcement of its decision, which may be a final decision or release of a 'statement of issues'.

Peter Coleman

Pictured: For sale? The Canberra Times claims readership of 910,000 of the country's most affluent readers