LONDON: Collaboration within the UK newspaper industry has reached a new level with the launch of Impact, an initiative that enables advertisers to buy a package across titles that compares with TV, out of home and radio on reach and price.

All national titles, apart from the Financial Times, and several major regional titles have signed up to the scheme which Newsworks, the trade body for the newspaper industry, claims will reach 21m people daily.

For a cost of £375,000 an advertiser need only contact one publisher to take over the homepages of titles’ websites and block-book the first ad that appears in print versions.

“It’s truly simple because it’s only one phone call,” said Vanessa Clifford, the chief executive of Newsworks, in remarks reported by Campaign.

“Collaboration should always be multi-faceted and adaptable and Impact is a fantastic example of news brands’ collaboration,” she added, referencing not just the numbers but the quality environment on offer.

“Impact was born out of wanting to give agencies and advertisers a simple way of accessing this phenomenal quality and engaged audience, in one simple step,” Clifford said.

The move follows last month’s announcement of the Ozone Project, a standalone business selling digital advertising across the Guardian, the Times, the Sun, and the Telegraph, with staff jointly employed by the three publishes involved.

“We are working together to build a better digital ecosystem for advertisers, readers and publishers,” Hamish Nicklin, Guardian News & Media’s chief revenue officer, said at Cannes.

“The Ozone Project is a response to the challenges we all face and aims to facilitate the highest standard of digital advertising and ensure quality journalism and content continues to be funded.”

Up to now, newspapers have found it difficult to move beyond simply funding combined marketing efforts which have proved ineffective in the advance of the digital duopoly.

Previous efforts to work together came to nothing, although Newsworks research has suggested that advertisers who cut back on newspaper advertising are less effective while arguing the pendulum has swung too far towards digital advertising.

Sourced from Campaign, Guardian; additional content by WARC staff