4 of the biggest media publishers in the US are forming an advertising company to take on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Four of the publishers behind some of the most well-known local news brands in the US - such as USA Today, The Houston Chronicle, The Miami Herald, and The Los Angeles Times - have put their rivalries aside to form a new company that will sell ads on all of their behalves.

Nucleus Marketing Solutions claims to reach more than 70% of consumers in the top 30 US advertising markets and 168 million online users.

The idea is that by working together and selling advertisers audiences that span all of their local brands, the four companies will have the scale and the trusted premium brands to bring in the kind of big advertising deals afforded by international news brands like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Each brand will continue to have its own internal sales department, but the new company should hopefully attract advertisers looking for big, national audiences who may previously have overlooked local media brands.

The name "Nucleus" is meant to represent that the sales house is at the center of the four publishing companies, and like a nucleus, driving its movement and growth.

Nucleus will be based in New York City and will be headed up by the former chief revenue officer of Mashable, Seth Rogin. He joined Mashable from The New York Times, where he worked up the ladder for 13 years in various roles, becoming its vice president of advertising in 2006.

In a press release, Rogin said: "My lifelong passion has been to support journalism that matters by helping brands connect with the most desirable audiences in environments of high integrity. I'm humbled by the opportunity and eager to bring startup drive to this important enterprise. No longer will advertisers have to choose between trust and scale. Nucleus can provide it all in one simple solution."

Nucleus is similar to the "Pangaea" digital advertising alliance formed last year between The Guardian, Financial Times, Reuters, CNN, and The Economist. Again, the idea was that the publishers could offer a premium package to advertisers with the scale to rival big digital media companies like Google and Facebook.