Local Media Publishers Join Forces to Launch Digital Advertising Proposition 1XL

Johnston Press, Local World and Newsquest have joined forces to launch 1XL, a digital advertising platform of more than 800 websites with an audience of more than 17.5 million monthly unique users.

Henry Faure Walker, chief executive, Newsquest, said: “This is a significant step forward for our industry. Through 1XL, national advertisers will now be able to run one campaign seamlessly across 800 local news sites across the UK. Online display advertising is now worth over £2 billion per annum, a market hitherto dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook. We look forward to local news publishers, with the huge investment they make in quality content and local journalism, being able to take their rightful share.”

Ashley Highfield, Johnston Press chief executive , said: “Local media is increasingly becoming one of the most powerful, relevant and trusted ways to connect with a local audience. But national advertisers have been unable to truly capitalise on its potential, hindered by our industry’s innate fragmentation. Until now. The 1XL collaboration gives advertisers and their agencies, for the first time, the ability to scale their campaigns through ‘mass localisation’, and, as such, it is a monumental step forward for local media publishers, and we’re delighted to be partnering with Local World, Newsquest and the independents to help deliver this.”

Blanche Sainsbury, Local World commercial director and chair of the newly launched Local Media Works, said: “1XL is an exciting development for advertisers but also for local media publishers in the UK. It is clear from feedback in the market that there is strong demand for taking national brands local. Providing advertisers with access to our combined online portfolio shows how 1XL is a compelling option for reaching the UK consumer in a trusted and engaging environment.”

The 1XL platform will be run through a dedicated media sales team at Mediaforce and will draw on data from each publisher and third party data, alongside semantic and contextual targeting capabilities, to optimise audience targeting and maximise performance of advertising campaigns. It will also enable ads to be served around the most relevant and engaging content, and will be underpinned by leading geo-demographic analysis and insight provided by Mediaforce.