A NEW digital platform has been created for advertisers in The Press offering a reach of more than 17.5 million monthly users.

Newsquest, the parent company of The Press, is part of a new digital advertising proposition 1XL, designed to harness the strength of local media to give advertisers a UK-wide digital reach.

1XL, which will see Newsquest partnering with Local World, Johnston Press, and the majority of the UK's independent local media businesses, officially launched yesterday combining a portfolio of more than 800 sites showing more than 50,000 articles every week.

The platform will be run through a dedicated media sales team at national sales house Mediaforce Group.

1XL will give media buyers access to a highly engaged audience of 17.5 million monthly unique users, which 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 environment provided by thousands of experienced journalists publishing more than 50,000 articles every week across the network.

Henry Faure Walker, chief executive of Newsquest, 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.

"Online display advertising is now worth more than £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."