TORONTO — Postmedia Network Canada Corp. says it earned $7.9 million in its fourth quarter, helped by lower expenses compared with a year ago.

The media company's earnings attributable to shareholders amounted to eight cents per share for the quarter ended Aug. 31 compared with a loss of $22.9 million or 24 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

The owner of the National Post and other newspapers says overall revenue was down 8.2 per cent, but revenue from its digital businesses were up, mainly because of a 10.8 per cent increase in digital advertising.

Postmedia says it had $145.6 million in total revenue for the quarter ended Aug. 31, including $31.2 million from digital.

Last year, Postmedia's 2018 fourth-quarter revenue totalled $158.7 million, including $28.9 million from digital.

For the financial year ended Aug. 31, Postmedia lost $6.3 million or eight cents per share compared with a loss of $33.9 million or 36 cents per share in its 2018 financial year. Revenue for the year was $619.6 million, down 8.4 per cent from $676.3 million.

Postmedia's strategy is to grow its digital business while managing its legacy newspaper businesses through an industrywide revenue decline.