Fairfax Media and Mi9 are partners in a new Australian programmatic advertising venture.

Led by chief executive Pippa Leary, it claims to be the country’s first “brand-safe, content-driven” source of mobile advertising inventory, offering real time bidding across more than 50 locally-created mobile sites and apps.

From early 2015, its mobile inventory is expected to comprise the partners’ mobile properties plus those of third party publishers such as Daily Mail Australia.

The Australian programmatic market is forecast to grow to $1.4billion by 2018, with opportunities to target mobile audiences through “local content, produced by local publishers for a local audience” expected to drive further growth.

APEX is powered by independent advertising technology company AppNexus, which has publisher and advertiser clients in 23 countries.

Mi9 chief operating officer Marc Barnett, inaugural chairperson of the joint venture, says APEX will be “the new benchmark”, combining brand safety, volume and value.

Fairfax commercial director Tom Armstrong says the publisher coalition model has been proven effective in Europe: “We are delighted to bring it to Australia at a time of dramatic growth in this market.

“There has long been a need for an environment that offers premium mobile inventory at scale and this exchange directly responds to what our advertisers have been telling us.”

Participating publishers in APEX will maintain their own direct sales operations with a portion of their inventory flowing into the exchange for bidding by agencies. It uses the expression “brand safe” to indicate high quality, professionally created content.

Leary (pictured) has more than 20 years’ experience in digital, media and marketing, most recently as Fairfax Media’s director of strategy and market insights, responsible for setting the strategic direction for the division across print, online, mobile and other new platforms.