Mr Waislitz's public investment vehicle Thorney Opportunities bought into Fairfax in 2015, saying its share price didn't reflect the overall value of the company.

Fairfax, owner of The Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, represents about 3 per cent of Thorney's $100 million investment portfolio.

Mr Waislitz said despite traditional media facing structural challenges and journalist job losses being inevitable, Fairfax was a "strong company with a mix of businesses".

He said the standout was Domain, considering it was increasing its market share against Australia's No. 1 real estate website REA Group, which is 61 per cent-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

"The Domain business is extremely compelling and that is representing a greater and greater share of the total value of Fairfax.

"If Domain keeps growing at the rate it has been, or even at a lower rate but still very fast, which it seems to be as it's gaining ground on REA, I think there is plenty of value, upside in the current share price."

Revenue has jumped 

Domain's overall revenue has jumped 68 per cent so far this financial year, a trading update released earlier in November showed. This compares with Fairfax's overall revenue increasing 2-3 per cent, while publishing revenue is down about 9 per cent.

When asked if he would support Fairfax spinning off Domain, Mr Waislitz said it could operate as a standalone business.

"If it came to that. Domain is a strong enough business to be floated on its own, sure," he said.

A potential float of Domain has generated much speculation, after Fairfax internally recast its real estate division in April 2013 as a separately reporting business unit.

But a Fairfax spokesman reiterated previous comments from Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood and Domain boss Antony Catalano that the company wasn't considering spinning the asset off.

"That's not something that we are discussing," the spokesman said.

Mr Waislitz said Fairfax's other digital and traditional operations would "still have a place" and value if Domain was spun off.

Sunset industries

"I think you have to look at the other businesses as sunset industries, which are changing – there's getting the digital platform right, digital subscribers and advertising model.

"They will still have a place and they will have a value. They will have to have their own funding that's reflective of the challenges that they've got and the opportunities."

Fairfax's rival News Corp announced on Monday it would cut 55 journalists across its Australian newspapers to combat a soft advertising market.

It comes amid Fairfax offering staff voluntary redundancies but it is understood there is no redundancy target number.

"There's no doubt that traditional media is being challenged and has got to change its cost base in order to survive and unfortunately a big part of that is people are going to lose their jobs," Mr Waislitz said.

"That's the inevitable journey that perhaps some of these sunset industries have to go along. Maybe it would have been less painful if they started or anticipated it 10 years ago or so, and it would have been a gradual progression. But I think the management have been forced to do what they are doing in order to make those businesses stay at least viable."

He said he believed the quality of editorial content could be maintained.

"It depends on how management retain their access to that intellectual capital.

"The model of journalism I think has changed. The need to be in a centralised hub has changed. There's the ability for people to be more mobile, work from home, specialist types of articles, sharing of stories, access to global stories is much easier.

"I don't think the intellectual capital will necessarily disappear. It's just the model of access will be different and that will be reflective in the cost base as well."