TELEGRAPH & Argus publisher Newsquest has launched a new innovative digital advertising platform in collaboration with Local World, Johnston Press and the majority of the UK’s independent local media businesses.

The new 1XL service is designed to harness the strength and scale of local media to give advertisers unprecedented UK-wide digital reach.

The collaboration brings together more than 800 sites, including telegraphandargus.co.uk. It will allow brands to access a broad portfolio of local media advertising opportunities via a single sales point for the first time.

The 1XL platform will be run through a dedicated media sales team at national sales house Mediaforce Group. Allowing advertisers to benefit from the relevance and trust placed in local media by their respective communities, 1XL will give media buyers access to an audience of 17.5 million monthly unique users.

That is more than any single commercial UK national news media website and similar in scale to digital advertising platforms AOL and MSN.

It will also allow advertisers to take advantage of the rich content provided by thousands of experienced journalists publishing more than 50,000 articles every week across the network.

Henry Faure Walker, Newsquest chief executive, said: “This is a significant step forward for Newsquest and our industry. Through 1XL, national advertisers will now be able to run one campaign seamlessly across 800 local news sites across the UK.”