Fairfax shake-up to see Metro boss depart Jack Matthews ... set to leave Fairfax. Photo: Luis Ascui Fairfax Metro Media chief executive Jack Matthews is set to leave the publishing company in a significant restructure of the media group that will see its business units reshuffled and merged. Most of Fairfax's Australian publishing business, including mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review, as well as regional media, will be merged into a new unit called Australian Publishing Media. It will be headed by the current head of Fairfax's New Zealand business, Allen Williams. ""The formation of Australian Publishing Media will simplify the way we do business,"" said Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood in a prepared statement. Fairfax Media ... the new organisational structure. ""We have already integrated our print and digital activities in the metro division, making us a genuine multiplatform media company."" The company said the two central elements of the restructure consolidation of the Australian publishing businesses were to drive revenues and efficiencies, and unlock the potential of Fairfax's digital businesses. The new publishing business will be grouped around news media, life media, Australian community media and business media. BusinessDay - the metro mastheads" business daily - will come under the new business media unit alongside the Australian Financial Review. Mr Matthews will not be the only executive leaving under the restructure, regional chief executive Allan Browne will also exit the company. Other developments will see the Marketplaces division being replaced by a new unit, Digital Ventures, that will house businesses like Stayz, RSVP and Tenderlink. In what may be the most significant change, Fairfax's lucrative real estate business, Domain, will be spun off as one of five new business units under the new structure and will include both the print and digital elements of the business. ""We continue to believe Domain is Fairfax's best asset and is undervalued by the market,"" said media analysts from Commonwealth Bank after the company's half-year results in February. ""Until the company provides greater transparency around its earnings (both digital and print), then we don't believe the market will value this asset properly."" The formation of Australian Publishing Media will allow Fairfax to operate a national sales team across publications previously separated into different divisions. The team will operate across the metro mastheads, business titles like the AFR and BRW, more than 200 rural and regional mastheads and display advertising in Fairfax's classified and transactional businesses including Domain, MyCareer, RSVP and Stayz. The half-year results announcement saw the Financial Review Group being folded into the results of Fairfax's metropolitan media business for the first time. No new cost cutting measures were announced. In February, the group upgraded targeted cost savings from the Fairfax of the Future program from $235 million to $251 million by next June when the full impact of the initiatives becomes effective. Under the Fairfax of the Future program, about 1900 jobs, equating to 20 per cent of the workforce, will be cut over three years and the company's largest printing facilities in Sydney and Melbourne will be closed as the group combats structural changes and a prolonged downturn in media advertising. Recent initiatives included changing the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age to compact formats last month. A digital subscription model will also be introduced in the June quarter. Mr Hywood has said the company will "continue to be in print while it's profitable."