Underwood (pictured) has experience of establishing audience acquisition strategies for media brands including stints at The Telegraph and Future Publishing’s TeamRock. Most recently he has been head of audience development at Local World.

Underwood will report to 1XL’s managing director Scott Gill and will consolidate the fragmentation of technology and websites across 1XL’s publishers – including Johnston Press, Newsquest, Archant and DC Thompson – to build audiences at scale.

Underwood said: “Google’s algorithms mean traffic is sent to the bigger news brands, while smaller, more local publishers are feeling the squeeze. Audience development plays an important role in rebalancing this, which in turn helps publishers scale and make more money.”